Austronesia Empire, Imperial Majahapit, Jayapura Papua, Jayapura Mining Facility, Dungeon's Entrance
1st Year of God, Monday, 2nd Week, 3rd Month Of Abraham.
As dawn slowly breaks, members of the dungeon exploration team gather once more in the meeting room on the top floor of the admin building. Everyone involved was already waiting anxiously, though none more so than Odysseus and Penelope, who had barely slept the night before.
Sitting next to Penelope, Odysseus stifled a yawn and glanced at her, though she was doing her best to ignore him.
"It was nice last night," he whispered in her ear, making her cheeks blush slightly, and she responded with a hard pinch to his arm.
"Yeah, you were so rough last night you almost broke the bed," she retorted, keeping her voice just as quiet.
"Don't blame me, I tried to be gentle."
"You have magic that enhances your strength. You shouldn't have used it while redesigning the bed I told you in the first place."
"Alright, alright," he conceded, rubbing his arm in amusement. "I'm still baffled why you like such complex bed designs."
With that, Odysseus leaned back in his chair, amusement lingering in his eyes as he refocused on the topic at hand, which Sergeant Dice was detailing out the final instructions for both teams. Finally, when the final briefing was over, the whole room emptied out and everyone gathered in front of the admin building, where a couple of large dark green tents had been set up.
"Alright," Dice announced, pointing to the tents behind him, "Enter the tents one by one. Inside, you'll draw your equipment and supplies for the mission. Make sure you have enough food and water for two days, spare ammunition for your weapons, and rock climbing gear."
Penelope looked nervous as she stepped into the first tent. Inside, she saw two tables, each manned by soldiers dressed in battle uniforms. They gestured her over and handed her an armored tactical harness and helmet, fitted to her size, carefully instructing her on how to wear it properly.
Next, she was given a single-action revolver, which she had trained with and qualified for at the gun range weeks ago.
In a world teeming with ferocious monsters and unknown magical dangers, the government had mandated that all civilians across Austronesia undergo firearms training and own a gun. Even in cities and regions that had long upheld strict gun-control laws, these regulations were now abolished, allowing everyone to afford and carry a firearm, with a few precautions in place, of course.
When she left both the tents, she carried only the revolver with spare ammunition, and a katana-like blade in a scabbard, strapped to her left leg. As she was supposed to be rear support, she didn't carry any other weapons, but she was equipped with a tablet and a Motion and Heartbeat Tracker. She was also given a day pack which carried a multi-tool, spare batteries, 10 chemical light sticks, a first aid kit, 2 days' worth of rations and water, and a 15-meter dynamic rope strapped to the side.
"We don't expect you to take more than five hours exploring the first level," Pice informed the 100 soldiers gathered before him. "Each of you will be carrying a tracking device, along with extra food and water, just in case. This device…" He held up an oblong, matte black object. "…may or may not work inside. To be truthful, we don't know what might interfere with the signals it gives off, so… all the best!"
Odysseus then approached Dice and Eurylochus, handing each a flat piece of rock with arcane runes carved into it. "This will give you control over Number 1," he said, pointing to the two 2.5-meter-tall golems positioned at the rear.
Eurylochus whistled with his eyes widened as everyone turned to admire the support golems. "Damn, this looks so dope!" he exclaimed.
The new golems looked more futuristic than his earlier works, with clean lines and sloped armor. They were built with a lower center of gravity, giving them a hunched appearance. Their long arms nearly touched the ground, which enabled them to walk on all fours and climb stairs if needed. The drawings of the arcane symbols that powered the golems were hidden under a layer of rock armor, protecting them from damage, and each golem was marked with numerical symbols on the right chest plate and left shoulder pauldron to indicate which unit it belonged to.
A large mechanical autocannon, almost as tall as Penelope, was mounted on the left arm of each golem. The cannon could fire rocket-propelled grenades every three seconds from a box magazine containing dozens of them.
As the team walked up towards the entrance of the mines, the workers and miners lined up along the sides and cheered them on.
"Damn, I always wanted to be an adventurer when I played Dungeon Quest," one soldier commented as he waved at the cheering crowd, "I used to play that game all day and night, didn't even care what my parents said, and just kept playing until 4 AM."
"Well, look at you now," his buddy teased. "A budding adventurer!"
They followed the brightly lit interior of the mines and passed through the widened entrance to the Dragonite cave, where several scaffoldings and lamps had been set up, the lights turning the Dragonite cave like some kind of psychedelic display of shifting colors and shadows. Further down the cave, the Army section could be seen manning a checkpoint a short distance away from the dungeon door with dozens of technicians and workers bustling around and performing various tasks.
Odysseus stood before the dungeon door and placed a hand on it, giving it a gentle push. To everyone's surprise, it swung inwards with barely a creak.
"What's the holdup?" he asked, grinning at their stunned expressions. "You thought it would be hard to get in?" He barked out a laugh and stepped into the darkness, invoking a light spell that hovered above his head, casting a soft glow around him.
"Alright, everyone, put on your war face," Dice ordered and waved everyone forward. "Private, I want your war face, not your fuck face!"
"Captain, this is my war face!" The private quickly wiped the smile off his face, steeling his expression as he readied his weapon and followed the soldiers into the dungeon. "Damn, does he have some magical eyesight or something?"
"Eyes front! Less talk!" Dice barked as entered next, following the team in.
The dungeon corridor stretched further than their light beams could reach, while Odysseus' light spell floated above his head, illuminating the arched passageway. Penelope, feeling interested, immediately went and examined the walls, noting the architecture of the tunnel, which seemed to be constructed out of layers and layers of bricks, with some intricate carvings on the upper arches of the tunnel.
"Interesting," she muttered to herself.
As they continued down the corridor, Penelope waved a sensor wand around, catching Odysseus' interest. The two began chatting quietly as they walked in the middle of the group. The heavy footsteps of the two support golems followed docility behind echoed through the spacious corridor as they navigated the path.
"Anything on the sensors?" Dice asked after they had walked for nearly five minutes.
"Nothing, Captain," a soldier responded as he swept his motion tracker left and right. The brick corridor was eerily clean, not even a trace of dust at all.
Penelope used her helmet cam to record all the drawings and carvings on the walls. After a while, she noted, "The drawings and carvings repeat themselves after a while, almost like some kind of hieroglyphics. Sir Odysseus, do you know anything about them?"
Odysseus examined the hieroglyphics and shook his head. "No, my apologies. I do not have knowledge of ancient symbols or scripts." Suddenly, he pointed ahead. "I see another door."
"Hold up!" a soldier in front hissed. "I'm picking up some movement behind that door! The signal is too weak to detect much, but I think something is blocking the scanning signals, but so far comms with Ops are still clear."
Dice looked at the soldiers and jerked his head once. The two of them nodded and ran forward, each taking up a position on either side of the door while the rest of the team formed up with their guns at the ready.
"Ready!"
"Lights off. Go!" Dice ordered.
With his command, Eurylochus' team held their position at the rear while the lead soldiers moved into action.
One soldier swung the door open and moved right, while the second moved left, and the rest followed in behind them, each sweeping their designated sector. They entered a dimly lit large room with five openings, where what appeared to be dozens of ants the size of large dogs attacking several amber-colored slimes.
"Fucking bugs!" Dice cursed as he mentally rolled his eyes at the sight of the giant ants.
"What do we do now?" one soldier whispered.
The room was surprisingly illuminated by several large clumps of glowing moss that gave off enough ambient light to see. The ants so far have not noticed them as they were busy harvesting the slimes by cutting gelatinous creatures up with their mandibles and secreting some sort of substance that they use to collect the slime fluids.
Odysseus stuck his head into the room and exclaimed "Oh my, those are Spider Ants… and Honey Slimes."
"Danger level?" Pice asked as he kept a wary eye on the ants who busied themselves with the slimes.
"Hmmm, I would say Spider Ants are a Level 3 or 4 creatures," Odysseus replied thoughtfully, "Those slimes are Level 1, they are not hostile, great for making desserts but beware of the ants, they are quite troublesome if they swarm you."
Dice did a quick calculation. The average knights, soldiers, and mages in Tarxan were around Level 4 to Level 5 while most of the First Wave Demons that attacked during the first day of the New Year Tragedy are classed by the elves as Level 5 to Level 6, while the Demonic Knights peaked at Level 9 or 10.
"What are the characteristics of spider ants?" Dice asked.
"They have the strength of about ten men, move incredibly fast, and have the ability to climb walls. Their carapace is harder than iron and communicates telepathically. They're hive creatures, and have a queen in control of all," Odysseus explained, tricking his fingers as he recounted the traits of a spider ant. "Their joints are their weak points, and they're vulnerable to fire, but resistant to earth magic and piercing attacks."
"Top!" one soldier whispered urgently, "I think they've noticed us!"
The ants squeaked and chirped as they turned to face the new threat with menacing intent, while several of them hurriedly bundled up the collected honey from the slimes and ran off into one of the tunnels.
"They don't look so happy to see us," another soldier added, his rifle's buttstock snuggled tightly against his shoulder, as he looked down his sights at the angry ants.
"Well, if they rile up, they turn hostile to whatever that disturbed them," Odysseus added helpfully from the rear. "And yup, they look angry."
Dice closed his eyes, took a deep calming breath, and then opened them as he centered himself with steely resolve before giving the order.
"Fuck this, kill them all!"
Just as the ants rushed up to them and waved their mandibles threateningly, the soldiers in the front opened fire.
Dozens of 6.5 mm solid lead bullets punched a hole into the head of the lead ant. The hard-steel exoskeleton cracked with hemolymph fluid exploding out from the exit wounds, and the dead creature's body curled up on itself as its body systems no longer pumped hemolymph to its body parts.
"Fuck these bugs!" Dice growled, as more soldiers fired and attempted to wipe out every last one.