For how impressive it was to see Hans fighting the woodland creatures, the fact that the buck was wanting to fight with Griswold more or less took his focus. As it just stood there, trampling the ground beneath it as the dark mage faced off against the other beasts in the area, he thought about how he should face this creature. It was true that he had come here for the sake of training, and knew that these creatures were all the product of the dungeon rather than actual animals, though that was something he was currently struggling with. There was something so regal about the beast, something that made it look like it was actively looking after this place that made it hard for him to want to kill it, yet it was something that needed to be done if they were to move on from this point. In the end, it all came down to the question the beast had posed.

When it asked him more or less what he was doing here and why he had come, Griswold hadn’t taken a whole lot of time to think about his answer as it was rather simple for him, though he could have said much more. To defeat the demon lords, to become strong enough to make sure the next demon lords would never get the chance to rise, to look after nature and keep people from randomly slaughtering entire packs of wildlife, and the list went on. But since the people he considered to be his adoptive family lived out in the forsaken region, it was a place that had come to rule at the top of his list of reasons for wanting to become stronger: To protect the commoners and peasants of the land of clover from harm. Rather than calling it quits here, he imagined this was just going to be one of many hard decisions he was going to have to be making over the coming weeks, months and years.

Hopefully the ends justified the means.

Placing his sword over his shoulder and locking it back into place on his back, Griswold cracked his knuckles as he established eye contact with the majestic stag of autumn. He did not want to make this creature suffer for even a second. If anything, he wanted to get to the point where he could kill it at once without it really getting the chance to feel the pain, which limited his options to two particular spells he had in his grimoire at this point in time. Narrowing it down to exactly one since there was no reason to destroy the surrounding environment, Griswold began charging at the buck, which in turn rose on its hind legs for a quick display of power before beginning to rush at Griswold. Beginning to radiate with light as he approached the beast, he waited for there to only be a few meters left until they collided before releasing a beam of solar mana that would rip through the beast completely. Sundering limbs and tearing flesh from bone, the fight was over in an instant.

FLOOR 4 | ROOM 1

As the bits and pieces of the once mighty stag were still raining down upon the meadow they found themselves in, it was clear that its death had triggered something as the entire environment responded to it. Significantly dropping in terms of temperature, all of the leaves suddenly fell from the trees around them. Autumn had passed, and winter had arrived before them in the blink of an eye. Not taking the time to mourn the passing of the stag since it would just be reborn shortly after they left the place, he was at the very least glad that he could have taken it out in such a fashion as to not make it suffer. Being the protector of its own little realm, Griswold had felt a rather strong connection to it, as he too had more or less become the protector of a realm. The forsaken realm that was.

With the path out of here and into whatever winter wonderland this place had in store for them next, the elven knight preferred not to stick around the remains of the stag for too long, instead taking the lead again as they left the meadows behind for snow covered floors and barren trees. As much as he enjoyed the thought of leaving behind yet another meadow for what appeared to be a path leading into a clearing in the middle of the forest, Griswold knew that they would just be repeating the same old crap over and over again, as they’ve been through three forests so far and braved four meadows with increasingly more powerful entities guarding them. But for whatever power they held, they did not match the kind of power Griswold and Hans brought to the table. And that was all fine and good, as this was an endeavor related to growing stronger and smarter in battle, not a race to avoid dying.

While the cold did not bother him all that much, he could imagine how Hans might not share that sentiment. After all, his element seemed to be all about darkness, where as Griswold dealt with cosmic heat. So, using his fair amount of mana control, he formed a small sun the size of a basketball that would hover in their vicinity, radiating the kind of heat that would keep someone warm in spite of the elements. At this point, it was more or less the only thing he could really do about it after all. However, once he formed the sun, he could feel a shift nearby as the snow seemed to move. Inspecting it closer, it seemed instead that there were creatures that had just about the same color pelt as the snow, being some kind of foxes that had begun circling them. Were it not for their natural camouflage and the fact that their environment had just changed, Griswold believed that he might have noticed them sooner. But it was what it was.

Creating a strange blueish flame to form around them, it was clear that they were trying to conjure up fake images to distract Griswold and Hans from the real deal, though he was not so easily fooled. Being quite adapt at sensory, at least enough to see through the trickery of these creatures, it was relatively easy for him to follow the real ones around and keep them from hitting him with their flames. With his sword still on his back, he prepared to lash out at these creatures, were it not for the fact that they were quite agile and did not have any intention of getting close to them just yet. If nothing else, it gave him a bit of time to reach for his blade and to figure out how these creatures intended to attack them now that their illusionary abilities seemed to fail them. Gripping the handle of his blade, he was prepared to strike as soon as the foxes truly made their move.

1186 (13936)

Floor 1
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Floor 2
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 3
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 4
Room 1: 659 / 2500

Tldr: Killed the autumn guardian and entered into the next room.

It was not surprising that Hans was the first one out of the two to strike again, which gave Griswold a moment to see exactly what he should be expecting from these snow foxes. Not that it would have mattered a whole lot in the end, though the elven mage simply had a curiosity that was hard to sate, one that required him to get at least some level of insight into the abilities of animals, monsters, mana beasts and whatever else did not fit into one of those categories. It was just the kind of person that he was, believing that knowing such things might help him out in the future. And up until now, he could honestly say that by going far and wide across and outside of the borders of the country while gathering all manners of combat information he could, it had paid off several times. He had even imparted some of the things he had come to figure out on others.

For instance, he had fairly recently shared what information he had on trolls with a junior member of the black bulls squad, figuring it could help her from getting crushed by one of them. That, and he hoped that the knowledge he gave her would have helped her out in the sense that she might be able to keep from fighting entirely, given how trolls were among those creatures one could actually converse with, albeit on a childlike level. So as he watched the foxes trying to pull off their attacks through means of a more mobile form of blue fire, it seemed that they died just like any other mammal when a blade was to be pulled through their flesh. While that might have sounded strange, it was actually not nearly as weird as one might believe. After all, so far, a fair amount of the creatures they faced here were poisonous, some even releasing a toxin upon death.

So the fact that these creatures which seemed capable of casting illusions and creating a form of cold fire were now known to him to at least some extent meant that, in the future, he could maybe even take others to this place for the sake of training them. This time around however, it was he who was undergoing the training, and so far, he could say that this place was not nearly as challenging as it was made out to be. While it helped a lot to have someone like Hans around, the fact that he himself had never felt threatened by anything in this place up until this now was speaking volumes. So while Hans dispatched his share of the party, Griswold used one of his more contained explosive spells, releasing several spheres from his hand that launched themselves into a fairly strategic area surrounding the foxes, allowing the resulting explosions to meet one another in the center and incinerate them on contact.

While this was merely a recent adaptation, the original spell had been way more simple. Fire a single projectile, make it erupt and hope that the explosion would hurt someone enough to shift the tide of the battle. Of course, at the time of its creation, Griswold himself had also been a lot weaker, making this the strongest spell that he had in his arsenal at the time. But through means of increasing both his offensive power, as well as his level of mana control, he had been able to increase the amount of projectiles he could dish out while keeping the level of mana he would need to expend the same. While a simple enough trick at its core, it required rather precise levels of mana control that not everyone had. Luckily for him though, he was naturally gifted at these things it seemed, allowing him to pick it up in little to no time at all and make even his weakest and most useless spells feel like they had a contribution to make.

The sad part about all of these creatures being killed though was the fact that they could not sit down and enjoy the spoils of the kill, because these foxes for instance were cooked more than well enough to be eaten. But as a personal rule, Griswold had learned never to eat a single damned thing he encountered in a dungeon, especially after the time he almost sat down to have some food that had been covered in an illusion, which almost kept him from noticing in time that he was about to eat human remains. Luckily for him, he hadn’t actually gotten to the point of eating, because given the amount of meat he ate in general, he just might have liked it.






Leaving the almost perfectly cooked remains of the snow foxes for what they were, the time had come to venture what was likely going to be yet another path past a river leading up to what he could only imagine was inevitably going to be another meadow. So as the two made their way from the snowy forest clearing and further along the only path that didn’t end up in a wall of trees knit so tightly together that it made it look like only half as impenetrable as it actually was, Griswold pondered on what Hans had brought to the table. It was indeed a strange thing to consider, for the autumn guardian was the only one they had faced in what could be considered three separate seasons. If anything, they should have encountered the guardians of spring and summer before meeting with it, yet for some reason that had not happened.

“That’s actually a valid point, and one I can’t possibly begin to answer. The one we encountered was asleep when we found it, so maybe it didn’t have the time to escape the scene in time. But that makes no sense if you take into account how it was the guardian of the region….”

Pondering on the subject as they did indeed encroach upon yet another river, it seemed that this one was completely frozen over. Doing exactly as they had done in the previous installment, he would keep following the river until they would undoubtedly reach a clearing, but not before they would have to fight some other peculiar creature. By now, maybe it was a good thing that they had caught on to what was really going on here, as it allowed them to vaguely predict what was going to be coming next. But for all that it was worth, as the followed the frozen river up to a frozen over pond attached to an equally frozen waterwall coming down from a rocky ledge covered in snow, the whole guardian issue still bothered Griswold. He had a hard time figuring out exactly why they had only met a single guardian, especially since the reason why was perhaps that the guardians didn’t revive the same way as the others.

Thinking that maybe, when a guardian was killed, another had to take its place rather than the same one constantly reconstituting over a period of time, it would explain why they had only met the one. Maybe the other two were simply not chosen yet, or maybe they just took longer to reform. Believing the former to be more legitimate than the latter, he couldn’t make sense out of it no matter how hard he tried. Leaving the issue off for what it was, they continued to approach the ledge and the frozen waterfall, which meant having to cross the frozen pond. Stomping in place to make sure exactly how thick the ice was here, there was no sign of cracking or any sounds being made beneath the surface that might mark the place as being unfit for walking upon, let alone fighting upon. One thing was certain though, if they were to be attacked here, using spells would likely result in them both taking a very chilly dive.

1337 (15273)

Floor 1
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Floor 2
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 3
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 4
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: 542 / 2500

Tldr: Traveling along the riverbank, over the frozen pond and closer to the frozen waterfall where the Mawsercats are.

For what it was worth, Griswold was never really the person who would fly somewhere when he could walk, enjoying it when he could just make his way through the countryside on foot and see what was going on through the eyes of a commoner. It was one of those things the people in the big cities lacked, as they tended to just fly everywhere or get someone to create some fancy portal. It was that kind of thing that kept them removed from the normal folks that had to go everywhere by foot, horseback or by cart. And by keeping themselves removed from it, they would never be able to understand the struggles of average hard working peasants and commoners. At least that was part of his reasoning behind walking everywhere. This time however, since they were in what seemed like a looping dungeon that kept rehashing the same location over and over again, he was all for the idea of flying past it.

Hopping on, the two made their way off of the frozen forest floor and into the sky, though not so high that they could not see where they were going. Due to the density of the forest in some places, it was fairly easy to see where the dungeon wanted them to go, and where they should not be going. Truth be told, Griswold had never bothered to try and steer away from the “beaten path” as it were, to go against the directions of the dungeon and see what was in the areas that they were not actually supposed to be headed into. Maybe one day he would bother checking that out and see what would happen, though now was not that day. He hadn’t come here for sightseeing and trying out new things after all, he had come here to see what a fellow swordsman could do, see how they guy’s magic worked and whether it was why he had become a royal knight without going through the trials, and obviously to make himself stronger in the process.

So when Hans noticed their new enemies waiting for them at the top of the ledge, it seemed that they had made a smart call by flying towards their next destination, as it kept the creatures from leaping down on them from the high ground. And if he knew anything, it was that the high ground was something that was worth having in a battle, maybe not so much in a magic battle though. These feline creatures, which sent their attacks into the air by roaring and causing icy winds to tear forth. Because they had to pick between two targets, they shot their attacks at both him and Hans, though they could avoid the majority of the attacks. Breaking away from where the bird golem was, the dark mage went on the offensive first, though Griswold was not about to stay behind. Instructing the bird to do a dive towards the ledge, he made sure the felines would be fixated on the bird before leaping off and severing on clean in half with his blade.

The downward momentum mixed in with the sheer size of this sword was more than enough to break the beast off at the spine and leave it dead on the floor, though Griswold could not just stop there. Behind the large cats, Hans had already begun killing, making his way through two of them already before Griswold could even finish off the one. Whether out of fear or out of a misplaced attempt at taking him out in one fell swoop, two of the remaining three animals dashed at Griswold in an attempt at pushing him to the ground and ripping out his jugular, though they had not yet met his sword and knew not what it was capable of. Once they were in range, two thorns shot forth from the blade, growing in length and rapidly covering the distance to the two beasts. Aiming one at each, the thorn ripped through their bodies and lacerated them from within, bringing upon them a rather painful end, but a necessary one.

Making sure that both of the animals were in fact dead, and not near death and suffering by beheading the both of them one by one, he pulled the crystalline green sword through the snow in an attempt at getting the blood and bits off of it before he could return it to the holster on his back. With these creatures all being deceased, the trees once again parted ways, which could really only mean one thing at this point. Having been through this plenty of times already, he knew that Hans knew just as wall as him that what would be awaiting them ahead would be some sort of meadow filled with monsters aiming to kill them. Mounting the bird golem again, Griswold wondered whether or not this place would again have a guardian, or if maybe the autumn guardian had been a one time kind of deal. Asking the bird to take him up and into the next area, all he could do now was ponder on it and wait, as the answer to his question would be given soon enough.




Carried on the back of the golem, it wasn’t long before he got carried through the opening in the forest that had in fact taken them straight into another large clearing. And surely enough, as soon as they did, it seemed that there was indeed another guardian waiting for them as they approached. Matching the overall theme of this area within the dungeon, the creature had white fur and tree-like antlers that matched the surrounding forest. It was without a doubt the same kind of mana beast as the autumn guardian, but whether or not it was weaker or stronger remained to be seen. Sighing ever so slightly at the sight of it, he already dreaded the thought of having to kill it, as he would have much rather gone up against a band of raiders or warriors that had sided with an evil king. Even if it sounded strange, Griswold had a much easier time killing bad people than he did with animals.

As the golem was making its way down to the ground, Griswold managed to shoot a last couple of glances around the area to see that there were in fact more creatures on the way to aid the guardian. Having likely seen him fly on in on the massive black avian, it was no surprise that they came rushing in without the guardian having to even call upon them in the first place. So as the golem landed in front of the guardian, Griswold had already seen some of the foxes from before rushing into the clearing, though he also noticed some creatures that seemed like owls. This was actually a first, as most of these clearings seemed to just call in creatures and animals they had already fought at some point before, though these owls were an entirely new arrival. And seeing as they knew nothing about them yet, that already made them more dangerous than the foxes with their cold flames.

"Do you desire power for yourself, for others, or for no one?"

Again, a guardian came out by posing a certain question to the two of them. This time, it was far less cryptic than the previous, asking in rather clear terms why the two of them desired power. And just as had been the case before, Griswold could not presume to know why Hans did what he did as he did not know him well enough to know what drove him, though he could answer for himself. That said though, the answer really wasn’t that simple, as he did not just seek power for others or for himself, he sought power because of what it could mean, what it could represent for the poor and the downtrodden. For him, getting more powerful meant that the limits as to what he could do were pushed further up, it meant being able to help more people against more powerful threats, and it allowed him to become a symbol for those that had lost faith in the system and wanted to believe in one of their own. And that was why he sought, no, why he desired power.

“I desire power for myself and others, as my power matches the amount of people I can save and the kinds of threats I can save them from. While it might be a simpler answer than you’d like, that’s about all I can say about it.”

Whether or not it was actually the case that the creature did not much care for his simple and down to earth answer, it stomped the ground violently, causing the very ground which seemed to just be a blanket of snow on top of a field of grass to turn into a mighty avalanche. Striking before Griswold even had the time to act against it, the snow enveloped him and caried him back several tens of meters towards the entrance in the trees leading them from one area into the next. Once there, the avalanche stopped, leaving him to fend for himself in an attempt at breaking free. Having no idea whether or not Hans had been swept up by it as well or if he had managed to brave the rather sudden assault upon their position, he hoped that he would have been the only one that had gotten hit. Even if that meant the dark mage would need to fight alone, it at least meant that they were not both prone to being attacked.

So while he was buried under snow and only had so much oxygen to work with while submerged, he began building up his solar mana so as to burst and melt his way out of it as soon as he could. For the moment however, he remained stuck and was incapable of really doing much.

1679 (16952)

Floor 1
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Floor 2
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 3
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 4
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: 800 / 2500

Tldr: Used the sword to kill one cat and the trigger ability to kill the two others. Traveled into the next area to meet the guardian, answered its question and got buried in an avalanche, leaving Hans to fend for himself. Good times.

Before he would run out of breathable air while laying under a thick blanket of snow, Griswold had planned on using his solar magic to simply blow away all of the white frozen stuff in a fairly large area. But when a large black claw came poking through in an attempt at digging and pulling him out of it, he figured there really wasn’t a whole lot of a point to wasting his mana here for no reason. As such, he would just allow the bird to do what it had been told to do and drag him out, which took little to no time at all to do luckily. As soon as he emerged and got put on top of the snow, the first thing he did was take a deep breath, which might have seemed a bit theatrical were it not for the fact that all of that snow pushing down on him from all directions had left him without oxygen for almost a minute. But these were the kinds of experiences one would only get when in the field, when one struggled with the actual situation.

Now he knew that being in an actual avalanche was something he never wanted to be in again, having experienced the threat first hand. Never again. Brushing the snow off of his clothing before it could melt and soak into it, he saw how Hans had already left one of the foxes and one of the owls in shambles, popping out of the snow just in time to see him attacking and eventually beheading the winter guardian. Whereas the other had been blasted into bloody bits before turning into leaves and blowing away, the severed head and the large body of the buck just turned into two piles of snow. Leaving just two of the animals, Griswold could not be arsed to get his sword and run all the way over to them. Instead, he used their fixation on Hans for killing their own kind and the protector of their realm in order to strike them both down with one of the spells he had used rather frequently already.

Sending several spheres of solar mana towards them and incinerating them in the explosion while making it so Hans would only really feel the heat which was just slightly warmer than what one might consider gentle, Griswold figured it would save him the trouble of having to fight the other creatures too, not to mention drying his clothes and warming him up in the process. It was the least he could do for getting dug out of the large volume of snow he had been buried under after all. While he would have thanked the dark mage sooner, the fact that the beasts in the area had been slain led Griswold to remain cautious for a bit. For whenever this kind of thing happened, the forest itself was quick to respond to it, changing the area as they stood in it to allow them access to whatever place remained within this dungeon.

FLOOR 5 | BOSS ROOM

Obviously, this time really would not be any different. For as the world around them started moving, the treeline made way for them to leave this place of winter, though it made Griswold wonder as to what they would be making their way into next. Having faced Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, there were no seasons left that they had not yet faced, so part of him imagined that what they would venture into next would be the exit, though nothing could have been less true that that. No longer seeing the point in flying into their next destination, what with the entrance being as close as it was, Griswold gestured over to it as he began making his way over on foot. Even from where he stood now, he could see all sorts of colors radiating from the next area, reminding him of the sight of the northern light which would dance in the sky above on some rare occasions.

“Thanks for the save back there. I would have gotten myself out by exerting a good portion of my mana, though I imagine we’ll be needing it for whatever is up ahead. Because when you think about it rationally, we’ve beaten the four seasons, meaning that whatever else is up there either controls it, or simply transcends it, and I’m not sure which of those is worse.”

Wondering what Hans might have to say about it, Griswold honestly hoped that whatever was up there, it would actually pose a challenge to them. Aside from the airborne poisons and the avalanche, most of the enemies that had been thrown at them were not exactly something that ran the risk of killing either one of them. That wasn’t saying that they were insanely strong, it just meant that the beings in this dungeon were not strong enough to hold them, and that was the simple truth of the matter. Even the guardians of the region had more or less been put to death with a single attack, which just meant that they had overestimated what this place was capable of. That said though, they weren’t at the end yet, as Griswold could clearly sense something up ahead as they were entering the new area.

What with the bright and colorful lights dancing across the sky and along the trees, it was clear that this place was not bound by any seasons, but was in fact a magical forest that followed only its own rules. Truly, this was what Griswold envisioned when he thought about how dungeons created their own laws of nature. Aside from the colors, he could sense natural mana all around them, from the roots all the way up to the green treetops, making it into a truly beautiful location, by far the most out of the five they had now encountered. But instead of having a large amount of actual wildlife frolicking about that turned violent as soon as Griswold and Hans passed, Griswold could only sense three distinct sources of mana that wasn’t coming from the forest itself. Continuing to lead the way to see what it was coming from, he made his way through the tree-line to see a strange tree.

Possessing what seemed like an actual face, Griswold imagined it was merely that until it moved its lips and eyes, causing the greenery above it which actually looked a lot like hair when he focused on it to wave about. As the tree exhaled deeply, it seemed to sigh in a deep and grumbly manner, which brought two large bucks out of the tree-line and bringing them up to the left and right of the tree. From what Griswold could tell by this, it likely meant that this tree was going to be their final adversary, all while being backed up by the guardians of spring and summer. Looking over at Hans and pointing at the two large bucks as if checking to see if he did indeed see what he was seeing, there was now no longer a reason to wonder what might have happened to the remaining guardians as they were merely protecting their … whatever the tree was.

"Do you defy your nature, or do you master it?!"

One thing was sure though, Griswold had not exactly expected the tree to be the one doing the talking. What with the two other guardians being right there, and them having asked the questions up until now, it seemed only fair for them to do so again now. Not that it mattered, as they would all end up meeting the same fate as the other guardians and their compatriots so both he and the dark knight would be able to make their way out of this place again and see how much or if they had grown at all. The question itself however was slightly more interesting as it made Griswold think quite deeply about which of the two was applicable to himself and his situation. He had after all been born into a community of those with elven genes that chose to live like the elves by respecting nature and secluding themselves from humanity and their issues, struggles and barbarism.

They did not kill for the sake of eating, as they had large gardens and vineyards where they magically grew their food at an accelerated rate, meaning the only time they actually ate any meat was at times when a large mana beast attacked the settlement and could not be swayed to leave. That, and aside from respecting nature, Griswold was taught to respect life and not take it if there were any other options. In that regard, he had grown the most, as he had taken quite a bit of lives of animals and a select few humans because he believed them to be beyond redemption, or because the animals in questions could not be made to leave. So while he at times felt like he had strayed too far from the beliefs of the elves, the more he thought about it, the more he came to figure out that he was merely doing as they had done for the longest time.

So when it came to defying his nature, the only way he had done that was when Asmodeus had triggered the shattering, which had removed his settlement and all of the people he had ever known from the face of the planet, leaving him alone to fend for himself. Because of that event, he had come across the Cromwell family, struggling to maintain their farm yet still finding it within themselves to feed him and nurse him back to health. It was because of them that he had come to see the beauty that existed within the forsaken realm, and what had pushed him towards wanting to become a mage and a knight so that he could look after these peasants and maybe one day repay the favor. While he did not call that something as strongly worded as one defying their own nature, he would rather go ahead and say that he hasn’t really done either of the two.

“Neither. I haven’t defied my roots, I’ve elaborated upon them in my own way by taking the teachings that had been imparted upon me all throughout my youth and made them my own. While I imagine becoming someone who lives and fights among humans was likely not what my people had imagined for me, it is where I deviated from the path others put me on and carved a new path that is entirely my own.”

Feeling like he had to elaborate more on his answer now than he had at the previous locations because they had made their way to the end of this place, it almost felt like something that had to happen, even though there was really no one forcing him into it. Now, it came down to Hans to give his answer before they could begin their final battle in this place.

1851 (18803)

Floor 1
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Floor 2
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 3
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 4
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 5
Room 1/Boss Room: 1336 / 3000

Tldr: Blew up the remainder of the creatures with a solar spell and moved into the next and final room.

Feeling the protective spell around him as the battle began, Griswold had obviously set his sights on the tree, as it was the entity that seemed to be in charge of this place. However, his wish did not come true as one of the guardians had decided to make him his target. Having no choice but to oblige now that the challenge had been issued, the buck howled so loud it seemed to make the forest and the ground shake. However, the shaking beneath the soil turned out to be something else entirely, as roots erupted from the ground, sending chunks of earth around the place as the tree seemed to be more than capable of controlling the surrounding area to fight both the dark mage and himself. Using his sword to slice through the roots as soon as they came up, some of them manage to nick him before he could respond.

Luckily for him, the dark magic spell protected him from that level of superficial damage, so it wasn’t so much a cause for worry as much as the strange sweet smell that had filled the air. Noticing only after smelling it that the spring guardian had been shaking its body in order to release a large amount of whatever fragrance this was from all of the blossoms that adorned its antlers, whatever it was meant to do did not appear to affect Griswold much at all. Aside from making him sneeze a few times, which the buck did not seem to approve of. Charging right at him with its antlers, Griswold moved to the side while swinging his blade, using the momentum of his own move to clash against the charging buck. Severing one of the antlers as the beast passed him by, it appeared momentarily disoriented from the blow.

Using this moment of weakness and covering for it, various larger and thicker roots shot from the ground between Griswold and the buck, protecting the beast from harm while forcing Griswold back if he did not wish to be struck down by it. For what it was worth, he had gotten exactly what he had asked for when he wanted for a stronger opponent, he just hadn’t imagined that it would arrive in the shape of a tree. Not really having the luxury of watching to see what Hans was doing, he more or less knew enough when one of the mana signatures disappeared, meaning he had most likely managed to kill one of the guardians. And when that realization hit him, Griswold couldn’t stay behind either. So as soon as the roots retracted and the beast came charging at him, he used his solar ray in order to blast the creatures into bite-sized chunk of deer which soon after disappeared entirely.

Even though it had done so repeatedly, maybe the tree should not have split its focus between so many different targets, as it allowed Hans to land the killing blow, which had quite the effect upon their surroundings. As the tree and its two guardians disappeared, the forest itself began glowing brightly, so brightly in fact that it fully obscured his sight and disoriented him to the point where it felt like floating through a strange kind of void. Remaining for a certain amount of time, the light eventually faded, showing that they were no longer situated within the dungeon itself, but had been transported to the very entrance, if it could be called that. Looking around for a moment to fully get his bearings, it would seem that things were finally over, and that the dungeon had been defeated. Obviously this gave rise to a bunch of questions within Griswold’s mind, like why they had been taken out of the forest and placed back in the basin of Aristaeus.

Most other dungeons he had been in so far, and there were a couple, he and the people he had entered with had to find their own way out after making their way to the end and defeating whatever creature was running the place. But he wasn’t one to complain, as they had crossed quite a fair distance to get to the tree that lorded over the dungeon, and he wasn’t really looking forward to walking back if it could be helped. Sure, there was Hans’s bird golem that could carry them out, though Griswold wasn’t the type to ask for transportation, especially not for the sake of laziness. So as he just looked at the way into the dungeon in front of them, part of him wondered what would happen if he were to walk right back in, and if that meant all of the creatures they had slain together would already have popped right back into existence or not. A question worth pondering.

“Well, I guess we’ve done it. The guardians and whatever that tree was have been defeated, and the dungeon officially kicked us out. At least that’s what I imagine that bright light was, some sort of transportation spell.”

Wondering whether Hans knew more about what this was or not, he figured he would learn soon enough. That said, for however much it was worth, Griswold felt like he had at the very least managed to push the limits of his own capabilities by at least a little bit, though that was not so much something that needed to come to question. More important than that, he had been given a chance to get better at wielding his sword, received some insights from someone who had been using a blade for far longer than he had by a long shot, and perhaps equally important, he had been allowed to practice a whole lot more when it came to controlling his mana. Because of how Hans was one for fighting in close proximity to the enemy, it gave Griswold the chance to temper his own destructive spells by using them in a manner that would exclude the dark mage from actually being caught up in it too.

“Alright, I guess that’s that. While this has been an informative and educational trip, there are still a few errands I need to run in the forsaken region. But this has been a great means of practice, both in preparation for the magic knight exams, as well as the upcoming battles against the archdemons. I hope you’ve managed to gain something from this too, and for however much it is worth, I appreciate the pointers. Have a safe journey back home.”

With that, Griswold popped his crystalline sword over his shoulders and locked it into its harness before whipping the black scarf over his shoulders and most of his back as a means of concealing a large portion of it. Feeling like doing so put most of the commoners he met at ease to some extent, there were also those who felt safe in the knowledge that Griswold was the one waving around the sword in that region of the country. Starting to wander away, he would soon leave Aristaeus’ basin behind him and make his way back to the forsaken realm in order to get some down to earth cooking from one of the local inns or taverns, as well as a much deserved pint of mead. Figuring he would be meeting the dark mage again soon enough, especially if the fights against the archdemons were to somehow go sideways, he imagined the man wouldn’t be needing any luck finding his way back home at all.



(Exit Thread)

1254 (20057)

Floor 1
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Floor 2
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 3
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 4
Room 1: Completed
Room 2: Completed
Room 3: Completed
Floor 5
Room 1/Boss Room: Completed

Tldr: Killed the final stag, got teleported out of the dungeon upon completion and began making his way back to the forsaken realm.