Adventures of the last Wild Dragon

Chapter 248 248: To Return

The sight of the heavily wounded man emerge from the dungeon portal shocked many of the gathered adventures, even Odrin and Masin force in shock as they witnessed the wretched state that the man was in.

Only one person did not entirely freeze up upon seeing his state. Before the man could fully collapse to the ground he was caught by a gentle surge of water as a certain dogkin rushed over to his side.

Powerful healing skills activated as she focused on the most serious of wounds, yet everywhere she looked on the man's battered body all she was was serious wounds.

It was a small miracle that the man was even alive, likely it was only thanks to his high level and impressive constitution that he was not already dead.

After the momentary shock of the moment the other healers present also rushed forward, each of them working together to stabilise the wounded warrior. Thankfully it did not take too long for them to stabilise him.

Yet fully healing such grievous wounds was saddly beyond people still in tier 4, he would most definitely need a sovereign if he wished to grow back the missing limbs, that or imbibe a truly powerful healing treasure.

Once stable he was swiftly moved to a secluded yet secure spot where a healer that specialised in reducing pain and bolstering natural recovery took charge.

In the meantime the two present leaders set up guard rotations as they waited for the rest of the adventures to return from the dungeon. They were only missing two parties right now, one led by another mid stage Lord and the last led by Val, the drow shadow mage that taught Violet about runes and how to utilise them.

Their was still a couple of days left from the original timeline before people were due to return so there was some hope that the two missing parties could still return. Yet as time passed that hope began to deminish.

It was an entire day later that the mousekin finally awoke and informed the adventures of what befel his team.

It turns out that his party had managed to rush through the early floors was surprising ease, yet when they got to the 6th floor things began to go wrong for them.

The setting of the 6th floor was that of a series of interconnected valleys, the terrain was incredibly complex leading to them having to spend quite some time within.

To make matters worse the average level of the creatures on that floor was level 130, meaning that each fight was a grueling struggle.

Then came the final boss of the floor.

It was the incarnation, the same being that they had previously fought twice before and had just assaulted the adventures outside of the dungeon. On the 6th floor it too was at its full power and it was not alone.

Much like had happened outside that incarnation had summoned vast swaths of creatures as backup, at first they thought they could withstand the attack. Yet they were soon overwhelmed.

Soon enough people began to die. Lavern, the mousekin was forced to engage the creature head on and only narrowly managed to eek out the slightest of victories. Saddly by the time that he had defeated the boss he was the only one left alive and he barely managed to make it through the exit before he collapsed.

That encounter alone caused Masin and Odrin to agree that they needed a sovereign to clear this place out. They even began to wonder if this dungeon should just be destroyed given how dangerous it appeared to be.

But their was little that they could do at this time. So they waited.

Time passed and on the 7th day since the adventures had arrived at the dungeon figured once more emerged from the dungeon portal.

Violet, who had been standing besides it was one of the first to notice, her eyes opened in delight as she beheld the familiar figure of Val emerge. She even had her entire party with her, they were battered but alive, much to the relief of everyone present.

Then came the process of filling her in on what had happened to everyone else, she took the information in with a grim look on her face, only interupting the retelling to ask pertinent questions.

It was also divulged that her party had only cleared out the 5th floor. They had opted to take their time on that level and did not want to delve deeper with limited time. Upon hearing of what happened to Lavern she was quite glad that she did not delve down to the 6th floor least her party befell a similar situation.

After some more discussion it was determined that they would continue to wait outside until the next morning. If no one else emerged from the dungeon after that time they would be forced to assume that the entire party had fallen within the dungeon.

So they waited, and waited, soon the morning of the 8th day arrived to find that the last party had not emerged.

The mood was somber as the remaining adventures gathered up. From the original group of 40 people, now only 23 remained alive and accounted for.

Almost a 50% casualty rate for a first time dungeon exploration was a near unheard of result. Death was to be expected, yet never to this level.

Saddly reality was not kind, and the gathered adventures had been forced to accept that harsh truth in the wake of this dive.

So it was that a somber group of adventures packed away their temporary camp. A note was left outside of the dungeon on the off chance that the final group did eventually emerge, yet none were all too hopeful that would happen.

With Odrin once more in the lead the diminished dungeon expedition headed off to return to Cragkieth city. It would be a long two days before they could make it back to the safety of the city walls and be able to deliver their report on the outcome of the expedition.

They could only hope that the incarnation would not make a return to try and finish off what it had already started.