PftA Book 5 - Chapter 32 - The Last Floor of the Dungeon

“If only I could progress as swiftly as you,” a dual Earth/Water Mage named Mikael sighed when I appeared at the Challenger’s Market.

I’d decided to leave through the primary portal instead of bothering with one of the bosses now that I’d reached Tier Ten. As an added bonus, leaving through the primary portal allowed me to say goodbye to the few acquaintances I’d regularly interacted with over the decades I’d spent on the ninth floor.

I wasn’t particularly close with any of them, but we were friendly enough that I felt it was worth making the effort to say goodbye.

“You are not that far behind me,” I said with a smile.

“Yet I’ve been on this floor for more than a century,” Mikael said. “How long have you been here? Half that?”

I tilted my head in acknowledgement, but stated, “But I was already a few levels into the tier when I returned, so it isn’t really a fair comparison.”

Though my statement was true, we both understood that I’d progressed far more quickly than most challengers. At some point, I’d calculated everything out and determined that, on average, I progressed a little less than twice as fast as normal elites.

Had I stayed in the dungeon and missed out on evolving my inventory into a demesne, it would have probably taken me a little over seventy subjective years to get through Tier Nine. That was assuming my speed of progression remained mostly constant.

The fact that Mikael had progressed almost entirely through Tier Nine in just over a century implied he was better than most dungeon elites. In fact, I expected I’d be seeing him again before a single decade passed.

“Well, I might not be able to catch up to you, but I won’t be far behind,” the man said with a grin. “Are you selling any of your equipment now that you’re moving on?”

Though I wanted to save some of the items I’d crafted to pass along as part of my legacy, I was not opposed to parting with some of the pieces.

Mikael’s comment drew the interest of a few other challengers, all of whom expressed interest in purchasing some of the items I’d outgrown.

“You have new messages,” Lisa informed me. “Would you like to listen to the one from Kai before entering the next floor?”

Since the message exchange was my cue to leave the floor, I finished up my trades and said my goodbyes before heading toward the portal.

“Is there anything I need to know before I get there?” I silently asked.

Though Lisa often manifested her avatar to keep me company, she never did so in the presence of others. I assumed that would change once Kai joined me since he had already interacted with her avatar in the past.

It was probably better that her capability wasn’t well known, anyway. I had no idea how others would respond to an Interface Assistant with the capability of manifesting a semi-autonomous avatar.

“Nothing in particular,” Lisa replied. “He will meet you at the Market, assuming the tenth floor has a similar setup. If not, he will send you a message to coordinate the rendezvous.”

“Perfect,” I said aloud as I continued forward.

I didn’t hesitate when I reached the swirling mass of mana. I’d waited long enough already.

= = =

Welcome to the 10th Floor of the Realm Dungeon!

The following rules have not changed for the final floor:

The restriction on violence still applies to the portal platform and within any dungeon structure under the control of a dungeon golem.

Loitering within dungeon structures is not allowed.

Do not restrict another challenger’s access to the kiosk.

You have been temporarily rendered infertile. This status will be removed upon leaving the dungeon (including ascension).

You may leave the dungeon at any time using one of the portals. *You will NOT be allowed to return since you have already used your return allowance.*

There are a few relevant changes to be aware of for this floor:

The challenge portions of the floor include five separate planetoids nestled within their own independent dimensional spaces.
 Zone 1 is the outer planetoid. There are no system restrictions on skills or spells.
Zone 2 comprises the second layer, where system assistance for skills is mildly suppressed and challengers may only use 10 spells.
Zone 3 is the middle layer, where system assistance for skills is moderately suppressed and challengers are limited to 7 spells.
Zone 4 is the second deepest ‘planetoid.’ System assistance for skills is severely suppressed, and challengers are limited to 4 spells.
Zone 5 is the innermost layer. No system assistance with skills will be provided, and challengers are limited to 2 spells.
Notes: Access to each layer may be gained via the primary portal. Spell selection will automatically manifest based on usage. Spell selections reset with each entry into a zone.

Experience modifiers will be added to each subsequent layer to compensate for additional difficulty. Otherwise, there is no meaningful difference between layers. Challengers are encouraged, but not required, to go beyond Zone 1.

A Challengers’ Retreat is available for rest, relaxation, and socialization.

Ascend swiftly, Challenger!

At this point, it was glaringly obvious that the dungeon was meant to prepare challengers for the next realm.

I wondered what Kai would make of the notification. Between Anya’s advice, my hints, and the implications of the welcome notification, he probably had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done before ascending.

It made me wonder what kind of disadvantage those ascending without ever having challenged the dungeon would face.

“Emie!” a familiar voice called out from the direction of the pavilion that housed the Trading golem and the monthly Challengers’ Market.

There was a larger structure connecting to the pavilion by a covered walkway. Since I couldn’t think of anything else it could be, I assumed the building was the Challengers’ Retreat mentioned in the notification.

I smiled as I headed toward my mentor. Though I’d made acquaintances since I’d returned to the dungeon, the superficial interactions didn’t compare to finally having a real companion.

Dungeon mobs became increasingly drawn toward groups of people, which prevented most from grouping up beyond the seventh floor, where safe zones still existed.

Zavira and I had managed for a while, mostly due to the enchantments I built-in to the pods, which hid our presence from other creatures. Most shelters at higher tiers had a similar feature. It was necessary even for those who didn’t want to cooperate with others.

Regardless, I no longer had to worry about such things since my demesne provided a near-perfect form of protection. And since Kai already knew all of my secrets, there were no real concerns about inviting him inside.

“I’m glad to see you are doing well,” the older Time Mage exclaimed as he pulled me into a hug. It had been a while since anyone behaved so casually with me, and I found I really appreciated the change.

“Me too,” I said before flushing and adding, “You look well, I mean.”

“Here,” Kai said with a grin as he handed me an intricately carved wooden box. “Zavira wanted me to give this to you as soon as I saw you.”

The gift was unexpected. Zavira hadn’t mentioned sending anything.

I was tempted to open it immediately, but decided that it would be better to wait until after we got a better grasp on the new floor and left the market.

“Have you been here long?” I asked.

“No. I just arrived a few moments before you,” he replied. “I was just checking in with the golem. It seems they remember me from my time as a challenger.”

I wasn’t surprised that the quasi-hive mind entity remembered my mentor, even if it had been subjective centuries. In fact, it had probably been well over a millennium in local years.

“Did you need to do any shopping before we head out?” Kai asked. “I was able to prepare before I returned, but you likely have very few items that would suit your new tier.”

“I wouldn’t mind picking up a few more materials to work with over the next month,” I replied.

Though I’d spent the last decade or so fighting the various bosses of the ninth floor – the only Tier Ten creatures I had access to – the variety of materials I’d collected was somewhat limited.

Knowing that anything I used while still Tier Nine would never reach the same power as something crafted after reaching Tier Ten, I’d saved most of the materials. I’d used a few things to make fighting the bosses a bit easier, but the majority had been put aside.

I’d been tempted to use the time dilation within my demesne for a bit of crafting after waking from my tier-up nap, but I hadn’t wanted to test the dungeon’s patience.

Though the 100-hour time limit had always started upon waking from the tier-up slumber, the fact that I’d been manipulating things with time compression made me disinclined to push things any further.

Now that I was free to craft at my leisure, I was excited to get a few more materials to craft with.

“I brought a few things that I’ve held onto from my adventures over the last few centuries,” Kai mentioned off-handedly. “I figured you could make use of the Enchanting materials far better than I could.”

My eyes widened at the comment, and I paused just outside the trading pavilion.

“You have centuries' worth of Tier Ten crafting material?”

“It sounds like a lot more than it is,” Kai replied. “I didn’t delve very often, usually sticking with the minimum required to stay in good standing after I reached the pinnacle. You shouldn’t get too excited.”

Knowing my mentor, that probably meant he had entire storage rings full of Tier Ten materials for me to work with. Even so, I wasn’t going to assume anything. It was better to have more than I needed than not enough.