Dungeon POV
As I watch them make their way through the first floor. Barely even noticing the rats at this point. I can't help but wonder how much longer they're going to be able to continue. Surely there must come a point where Lily's condition will make delving impractical at best. It's already beginning to subtly affect her mobility in ways she may not even be aware of. More importantly is that strange energy coming from apparently nowhere, or at least from a dimension that I can't perceive. Whatever this strange energy is, which behaves like mana but also nothing like mana, it has increased as of late. Where once it was a slow trickle, it is now a steady, if still small, stream.
As expected of a party of level 13 people the first floor is barely an inconvenience. With the second floor offering only slightly more resistance. Of course, by slightly more I mean that there were times they actually had to try a little. This was mainly in the treasure rooms and the boss room though. Sadly, during all this time I still haven't made any progress in even understanding what that strange energy is. So far it ignores any attempt to manipulate it in any way. I'm not sure if it's a dungeon thing or a me thing but the idea of something in my dungeon that I can't affect in the slightest just irks me. The energy, or whatever it is, does seem to be getting more intense though so even if I can't affect it now, I still might be able to in the future when I suspect there will be more of it to potentially effect.
For now, I decide to concentrate on the fact that they are on the third floor again. This means that they will finally be able to start significantly increasing the amount of stored mana I have. I still don't completely understand how the whole system works. Apparently, the build-up of any one type of mana is bad. Then again, too much neutral mana is also bad but then not enough mana is somehow even worse. All I know is the further they make it the more mana I get. The more mana I get the bigger I can make myself. I'm not sure why but there is this instinctual need to just keep getting bigger. The fact that doing this also somehow helps to regulate the worlds mana is a side effect really. At least as near as I can tell.
The first three rooms offer barely any resistance although they did need to pay attention and actually try. It's when they enter the first side room that they actually seem to take things seriously. Not that they were goofing off before. There's just something different about facing opponents that are close to being your equal. Chandra takes off, immediately moving to the first trap to begin disarming it. One of the perks of having cleared this room multiple times is knowing exactly where the traps are. I could randomize their locations, and probably will later, but for now I decide against it. Perhaps on the copper or bronze rank floors I'll start adding such elements.
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While Chandra is busy with the traps Cole and Clyde run straight for the skeleton fighters. Darrel uses his water vines to hold two of them allowing Cole and Clyde to deal with the other two relatively easily. Clyde's opponent thrusts his sword forward which he easily deflects before bringing his own sword back up slicing off the skeleton's sword arm. followed by a horizontal swing that shattered its skull. Cole meantime focused on just defending while waiting for Clyde to get done with his opponent. A vertical slice to the back of the head made short work of it after Clyde got free.
The two skeletons Darrel was holding were even easier to deal with since they were literally being held in place. The next room though is where they actually had to start trying hard. These enemies were on the same level after all. It didn't help that the next room also contained both a fire and water mage. That is on top of the tank and fighter skeletons. Fortunately, they already knew from experience that it did not contain any traps. This means that Chandra, who has reached level 12 at this point, is able to instantly start drawing the fire mages attention. Meanwhile Darrel faces off against the enemy water mage.
While that's happening Clyde and Cole are facing off against the enemy's melee units. For the first time this entire delve they actually need to use some skills. Cole uses a simple skill to increase his defense, while Clyde uses a skill to increase his reaction speed. Using this skill, he is able to easily block the skeleton fighter's attacks using his own sword while waiting for the perfect opening to counterattack. Eventually he gets his chance when his opponent commits to a heavy vertical slash. instead of blocking it Clyde simply deflects it before bringing his own sword down on the skeleton fighter's skull. Without stopping he then swings for the skeleton tank's skull. The tank sees this in time to block the attack with his shield. However, this is just the opening Cole needed to thrust his own sword forward and straight through his opponent's skull while blocking an attack with his own shield.
Meanwhile Darrel has been trading blows with the water mage. Unfortunately, the best he can do is to cancel out the enemy's spell with one of his own. Eventually Clyde is able to strike the water mage from behind while Cole simultaneously strikes the enemy fire mage. With that they manage to get through this fight unscathed but they're still far from being able to clear the entire floor. After allowing Lily to harvest all the fruits, a slightly harder task than it normally would be, they decide to rest for a while before continuing.
While retrieving her throwing knives Chandra is actually the first to spot one of the rabbits hiding in one of the bushes, they had thought was just for decoration. I think the reason she was able to spot it is due to her increased perception from being a rogue. Either way she quickly throws a knife at it startling the other members of the party. To her delight shortly after being hit right between the eyes it despawns leaving a chunk of rabbit meat behind. It's not the first time they've seen rabbits in my dungeon. For some reason though they seemed to think it was just in that one room at the start of the third floor. She shows it to the others while explaining what happened and they all wonder why I would suddenly start adding rabbits to other rooms all of the sudden. Not realizing the rabbits have been part of this room from the beginning.
Knowing what to look for now she eventually gets four more chunks of rabbit meat. They all agree that this alone was worth the delve with meat of any kind still being a rare treat. Hearing this I secretly give all my mobs that don't currently drop meat a 5% chance of dropping the relevant meat. Well except skeletons because that would just be weird and wrong. After the break and with renewed excitement they head for the southern exit.
