I lead the way to the seventeenth floor where the goliath spawned in causing the newbies to get nervous. I erased the beast with a blast of flame though leaving them in awe at the casual dominating power I'd shown. I left the group in Riveria as I chose a spot at the far end of the safe floor to begin my work for the gods refuge. I marked the edges with cursed energy filled divine blood formed into the various profane scripts that I'd learned from the dungeons prototype Antares.-
I curved it around into a massive circular sealed ring. I barely had enough divine blood for this part and all that was left was using any other type of blood to fill in the entire ring. Yes I had to cover the ENTIRE area in blood to pull this off. If I left even a slight gap the dungeon would still be able to sense the divine energy within it's bounds from the gap and may turn loose it's own anti-god methods to purge them. This meant I had to first clear out the trees and flatten the whole area which drew more than a little attention. -
I showed off my guild issued order for this to everyone who came sniffing around which got them to back off. As for the Evilus mixed in I simply made them "mysteriously" vanish. That is to say I drained their blood and erased their desiccated corpses with hellfire. It was only a drop in the lake of blood I needed for the work but a good start. I spent three whole days without sleep collecting more blood and slathering it over the ground that needed it before I covered every inch.-
I placed my hands above the edge of the ring and began my chant.
"Hold! Ye mask of flesh and bone! Immortal disguise! Take the excess and maintain oh veil of black! Seek not the light and hide away the breath!"
The heavy red blood hissed as cursed energy surged through it and it all began to glow ominously.
"Life within danger! Implore the bones of earth for shelter! Call not the sky home and resist the dew of mornings come! Bind and contain the spirit!"
The glow intensified as the blood began to turn into a red mist that rose up and began to fill the air inside the ring.
"Take the end and suffer the future! Fate recoils and danger averts! Grant Asylum to the heavens and guard away the calamity!"
As my chant reached it's end the red mist flaked together into a massive semispherical red barrier that pulsed before vanishing entirely. There was no sign of any blood ever being present and beyond the large clearing no hints of anything abnormal. I breathed out a heavy breath after I was done as it took a massive amount of energy to get this preemptive barrier up. Until the first god stepped foot within it was dormant and required no more fuel but once inhabited by a god the barrier would appear fully blinding the dungeon to everything within it's range.-
With that finally done I headed to collect the newbies before heading back up to the surface. To no surprise they all qualified for a level up from having killed something technically above their level. None of them took the level up at this moment though as their stats were way too low for it to be a good idea. I then got to work making a small barrier to keep Hestia safe once the fighting starts as she can't hide with the other gods due to my absolute last resort requiring her assistance.-
The barrier around our manor wouldn't work since it was likely to be one of the places hit the hardest being at the edge of the city in the dragons path. I settled for an armor set that was made of draconite that at the cost of the materials properties created a barrier around the wearer that was nigh impenetrable. At the same time however the person in the barrier was equally helpless to send out attacks making the thing purely defensive.-
The time came for Bell and the others to set out for their own level up challenge in the form of Amphisbaena and I did not join them. I had to instead accompany Ophelia to the twentieth floor to hunt a Hobgoblin. An unaltered one at that. Not that the hunt was anything special as she illusioned herself before assassinating the unaware creature with her scythe. Which was when I dropped the fact she had to kill another now that she had spent her scythes ability. -
A cruel trick I know but if she had no challenge then she'd probably not qualify for a level up. The next battle was not so easy for her as once she got off her sneak attack the Hobgoblin battered the fuck out of her as she tried to bleed it to death. Still she eventually succeeded in her hunt and we went back home. Four days later Bell and the others sent word through the coins that they'd killed the water dragon but Welf lost a leg in the process. Normally that'd mean he'd be forced to retire but regrowing a limb was childs play at this point to me.-
Something every adventurer who'd retired for that exact reason abused the shit out of by having Ouranos get me to restore them to wholeness for no charge "due to the emergency" of the situation. Bunch of shitty free loaders in my opinion but I still fucking did it. Their smug looks didn't last long when I personally left a tracker in their bodies in case they took "payment" and booked it. Nah, I wasn't about charity. You claim it's to help the emergency then you'd better damn well help in the emergency or i'd be taking back what I returned.