//Author's Note: Oops here's chapter 35
"Halt! Badge." He said with his hand out. The man in front of her was Captain Rellin "Stonejaw" Mardek – Head of Rift Entry Logistics. He wore his armor like it was part of his skin—because it basically was. Weathered, practical, and about as patient as a ticking trap. A jagged scar locks one side of his jaw in a permanent clench, and his idea of friendly conversation is a grunt followed by paperwork. He's the type that knows exactly how many people didn't come back last week.
"You'll be wantin' to stable that horse of yours. Unless of course it can walk down stairs." He said as Sam handed her badge over. "Ah, Beast Tamer, suppose you'll be takin' her with ya then. Still," he points to the forty some stairs it takes to get to the landing below. "Stairs, last I checked horses don't do well in 'um"
Sam looked past him, it was a straight open shot to the platform below, no one in the way.
"We'll be fine." She said, finally having an excuse to use Horizonbound Leap.
"That's on you, just make sure those beasts don't shit anywhere." He grunted
Sam could hear the snicker of laughs from the people behind her.
"They may be beasts but they're not wild animals." She gave him a look of contempt.
"Whatever you say girl, Ten copper to get in." He said returning her badge and holding his hand out. She dropped the coin in his palm and gave Sunblaze the signal. Sunblaze walked towards the first step, then with a slight bending of her knees she gracefully leapt over the staircase in a single bound.
Others around them exhaled in gasps of shock and she landed on the platform. You'd think a full grown horse, with rider, would at least shake the platform a bit by jumping from such a height, but all Sunblaze did was disturb the air slightly. She was the epitome of light on her feet. Sam smirked at the looks she got.
"What? Horses don't do stairs." She got off Sunblaze and sent her saddle and halter to her inventory then the horse herself to her beast space. "Good job beautiful, if we end up somewhere we need you I'll bring you back out, but this place seems a little cramped for now." As she waited for the others to make their way down she heard Sunblaze whiney about the looks she got before transforming into a golden mist and entered Sam's chest.
As she waited for her other tames to come down the stairs, Sam finally had a moment to take it all in. Past the platform, the Rift opened wide. Terraces of carved stone stretched endlessly, each tier lined with dungeon entrances. On one side, the Guild District extended like a fortress of organized chaos; on the other, the public dungeons shimmered in the dim cavern light. Wide staircases twisted downward, hugging the walls, leading into deeper levels where the glow of portals pulsed like distant stars.
The higher terraces held low-level dungeons, long stretches of numbered portals. The deeper she went, the harder the dungeons became, some far enough away she'd need a mount or cart to reach them quickly. Each gate shone in color-coded brilliance: red for monsters, green for resources, and blue for puzzles. Brightness meant active, dull meant downtime. Monster dungeons respawned every three days; resources needed a week; puzzles reset in a day. Each had ten simultaneous instances, so there was almost always room for another party—though, Sam noted, people naturally picked the ones closest to the platform first.
The platform she stood on wasn't just a staging area—it was the hub of it all. Here, adventurers formed parties, sized up strangers, or compared loot. Waist-high stone parapets lined the edges, punctuated with pillars every ten feet. Wind whispered up from the depths, carrying faint echoes of challenges yet to be faced.
As she was taking everything in, a middle aged man approached her. He was dressed in an AHA uniform with a handful of booklets.
"First time at The Rift?" He asked.
"Yes," Sam replied, turning to him.
"First things first, are you with a guild or an independent adventurer?" He asked her.
"Independent I suppose. I'm not with a guild."
"Right, then this is for you, you'll want to stick to the right side of the cavern. Those are the non-guild dungeons." He said, handing her a booklet in the AHA colours. "Inside there, you'll find the different dungeons listed with, type, level requirements and what you can expect to encounter. Gives you a little heads up on what you may need to prepare beforehand." He said, gesturing to the booklet.
"Here in the staging platform, you can form parties with other Adventurers or you can head down solo. Most of the low-level dungeons can be completed with one or two people. Seeing as you're a beast tamer," he said pointing to Syn, Tempy, and Iggy, "You should be ok on your own if you're careful."
"Thanks." She said turning towards the stairs to the right. At the end of the stairs she came to the walkway. Spanning fifteen feet it was wide enough to comfortably let people pass. To her right was a red portal with the number 384 written on a stone plaque. Opening the booklet she located the entry for 384.
[Dungeon #384 - The Viscous Forest
Dungeon Type: Monster
Monster type: Lesser Slimes
Monster Level: Min-13, Boss 18
Estimated Clear Time: Three Hours - Solo, One and a half hours - with a party (up to 5)
Description: This dungeon leaves some Adventurer's a little creeped out. A forest enshrouded in mist with oozing trees. Its inhabitants, Lesser Slimes, consume the tree's goo like sap as nourishment. As well as any Adventurer's who take on more than they can handle. The boss will only spawn once all slimes are killed.
Approximated Monster Numbers: 50, plus boss]
"Delightful" Sam said. The dungeon numbers seemed to be in order so she checked the ones on either side of the slime dungeon.
[Dungeon #383 - The Wailing Graveyard
Dungeon Type: Monster
Monster type: Skeletons
Monster Level: Min-12, Boss 17
Estimated Clear Time: Four Hours - Solo, Two and a half hours - with a party (up to 5)
Description: This dungeon is entirely contained within a graveyard. Upon entering it is silent, but once you pass the gates you'll find out soon why it was given this name. The goal is to clear the skeletons that will constantly appear from the open and partially open graves. If not dispatched quickly they can easily overcome a team. The church located in the back of the graveyard is your boss' location.
Approximated Monster Numbers: 100, plus boss]
[Dungeon #385 - The Plentiful Paradise
Dungeon Type: Resource
Description: This dungeon is vast. Containing a forest, wetlands, desert, and mountains, a variety of resources can be found in any direction you take. Expect to spend days here if you wish to gather from all biomes. Transportation is recommended. Integrated beasts can be found in a variety of species. From deer to butterflies, however, they are non-aggressive unless you attack first.
Approximated Beast Number: 100+, no boss]
"Ok ladies, any preferences? That's just the three closest, we can always look for something specific. There seems to also be Rats, Giant Squirrels, Bats, Fire Beetles, Clockwork Mice, Floating Eyes, Whisperspawn. Whatever the hell those last two are."
{"Giant Squirrels?"} Jarvis joked
"God, I'm never living that down am I?"
{"Nope, but on the plus side these ones may be slower and easier to hit."}
"Hilarious Jarvis," she said. Sam had always been a bit indecisive when given too many options. At restaurants she preferred either a small menu, or one where everything was completely different from the other. Figuring one dungeon was as good as the other she chose the slime dungeon.
"Alright, slightly off-putting dungeon it is." She walked up to the portal and held her breath, because that just felt like the right thing to do. She closed her eyes and walked through.
When she opened them again she was in a small clearing. The portal hummed behind her as Tempy and Syn emerged from it. With Abe in his pouch and Iggy in her arms they had all made it.
"Well the description was spot on." She said, looking around. The forest was indeed enshrouded in a thin low mist. It didn't really hide the details, just made them softer. The trees, on the other hand, were just as described. They looked like they were weeping a thick sap. Not too far from looking like a giant sneezed on them.
"Ok, this place is gross. Let's go find some slimes." Not quite sure what would work best, she figured fire was always good, or poison. At least with her spear and bow she could keep them at a distance.
It wasn't long before the first group of slimes were spotted.
"Oh my gods, THOSE, are slimes?" She said in shock.
{"I'm assuming you expected something more... Slimier?"}
"I sure as hell didn't expect little balls of bouncing jelly... Now that I've seen them they look like the slimes from Minecraft, only round of course. They are so cute! I want one!"
{"Yeah, until one touches you and eats you alive...or melts your body into goo with acid, or lava...or poison. Actually they're quite versatile little things."}
"You had to go and ruin it didn't you." Sam pouted
{"Apologies, however if you can tame that little blue guy in the back, he'd make an excellent healer"}
"Oooh!"
The group consisted of six slimes, from their colouring it wasn't too difficult to guess their type. Just to be sure she used Inspect.
{Name: Poison Slime
Age: N/A
Species: Lesser Slime
Level: 13
Rarity: Uncommon
Tier: Orange
Health Points: 130/130
Highest Stats: Vitality (13), Instinct (12)}
{Name: Acid Slime
Age: N/A
Species: Lesser Slime
Level: 14
Rarity: Common
Tier: Orange
Health Points: 120/120
Highest Stats: Wisdom (13), Instinct (12)}
{Name: Light Slime
Age: N/A
Species: Lesser Slime
Level: 13
Rarity: Uncommon
Tier: Blue
Health Points: 130/130
Highest Stats: Vitality (13), Wisdom (13)}
"Well poison is out, fire it is. Alright Syn see if you can trap them."
Syn activated Root Snare. Roots sprung from the ground and passed right through them. They were split in half for a second and unlike the Minecraft version, they didn't create smaller slimes, they just…kinda reformed with an unsettling shloop sound.
"Ok, physical restrictions are a no go. Tempy why don't you try using Tempest Coil, Iggy light I'm up. Maybe magical damage works better. Oh leave the blue one in the back though. That one's coming home with me."
Thankfully she was right, magical damage worked much better.
{-14HP}
{-14HP}
{-14HP}
{-17HP}
{-17HP}
At the same time Sam aimed her newly enchanted fire arrows at them. She aimed for the small dark spots inside the gelatinous balls. She was guessing that was their cores, and after the first one was engulfed in flames, she heard the ding of success. Guess she was right.
The little blue ball in the back wasn't taking this laying down, or whatever slimes did, a tentacle-like arm reached for one of its injured brethren and slowly healed it.
"Well shit… ok change if plans. Syn can you see if you can separate that blue one. Abe, you go with Syn and… I don't know, distract it with that illusion enchantment I gave you? See if you can calm it down or something. I'll do the same. Maybe we can distract it from its job long enough for the girls to finish off the others." With agreement from both, Abe scurried into Syn's back, practically disappearing into her fur. While copies of him ran around the blue slime.
Sam fired more arrows towards the other slimes, making sure to remind Tempy and Iggy to keep out of reach of them. Tempy's
AoE skill dealt low damage but it would knock off 42HP every ten seconds.
It didn't take long for them to finish off the slimes. Leaving the blue one alone. Sam quickly approaches using Animal Empathy Surge. The little slime wasn't really aggressive to begin with, it healed its friends and that was about it. While she was waiting for the skill to take effect she had the others stand guard around her. It didn't take long for the notification to pop up.
{A connection has been found between you and a wild Light Slime. Emotional trust 100%, Would you like to add it to your Tame List?}
Sam said yes and sent it to its beast space. She'd handle the details later. For now they had slimes to kill, and she would rather not have to do it in front of her new jiggly friend…if it even had a front. Without a face it was hard to tell. The thought of adding googly eyes to it, so she'd at least have a spot to look at when talking to it, popped in her head. She snickered to herself as they continued walking.
More slimes came and more slimes perished. They kept away from any gooey tentacles and she was starting to see why the guard figured she'd be fine.
By the time they reached the boss, Sam had had enough of the disgusting trees. Though, with her new tame, she was forced to transport a few saplings, never a more apt name, to the Beast Realm to make sure she had its preferred food source for it. Though apparently it could eat anything. Quite literally.
The Boss was much bigger than the others, Lesser Slime seemed to refer to their range of skills, not their size as the little jelly balls seemed to increase in size as they got to a higher level. By level 18, the boss was the size of Tempy.
But just like the others it is not immune to the lightning and fire combo they had practically perfected. Finally with one final arrow from Sam it dissolved into nothing but mana particles. Leaving behind a bronze chest.
{Ding! Congratulations you've killed a Level 18, Epic, Blue Lesser Slime. +50% for level discrepancy}
{Ding! Congratulations you've Cleared The Viscous Forest. Open the chest to find your reward.}
Opening it she found her rewards for clearing the dungeon. Inside was a pouch of coins, a shield, and three vials and what appeared to be, a book. Before she could check what anything was, another notification sounded.
{Ding! Quest Complete! Main Quest 2 - Clear your first dungeon with your tames.
Reward One: +1000xp
Reward Two: S.I.S.T.E.M. Upgrade - Unique Skills Set: You will now be able to learn skills from other classes. Whether gained from quests, achievements or as dungeon rewards. Skills formally restricted to certain classes will now be available. Note: New skills will have a 50% reduction in power that it would have had, if obtained through a class.}