[The Dungeon entrance changed to a regular one the moment the completion notification came through. I think you might have been the first person to actually clear the dungeon.] Vala sends a thought to Cain from her position outside.
[That's a possibility. Two hundred and some years ago when the system first formed, the mortal armies probably wouldn't have had anyone that could stand up to that being. The next group along might have blockaded the Exits for their own safety. Sorry for having you stay outside though. They were getting an enrage effect from the presence of demons and I didn't think about merging with you.] Cain sends back, pondering just what might have happened here.
Did the Laughing God trap the armies pursuing it and destabilize the area, which trapped a few more forces who came later? The last Seraphim seemed certain that the God was still in the area, and said Cain carried its blessing, likely in reference to the system interface.
On the bright side, Cain got some sweet new summons when he inspected his combat logs. The six winged thing was Legendary, so he can't Summon it yet, or possibly ever, depending on his future class options, but the others, the Seraphim Warriors can fly and are excellent fighters.
A description check shows that they are a Greater Golem option, where the ground based forces, made up of Holy Warriors, Priestesses and an Arch Priest, are all Lesser Golem options. Interestingly, the ground forces all show as having originally been Summoned troops. They must be from the Legendary Seraphim, because the Seraphim Warriors that he can use don't have any such ability.
"Looks like that one didn't have a quest, so why don't we move on to the scary dungeon, get the unknown out of the way?" Cain suggests, looking at his companions.
"Might as well. Hopefully they don't freak out about any of us being there. It really limits our forces. Without Vala and her group healing we had to be a lot more careful than usual." Nila says and Laura nods.
"We even had to dodge stuff to keep from overworking the healers." Laura adds.
Wait, did she just say she usually just face tanks everything and relies on the healing? Lazy Dragon.
"You should dodge more. It builds wing muscles which helps you grow huge and powerful." Cain suggests and Laura gets a thoughtful look, like she's considering if it's worth it.
"Alright, I'll try that."
The Red dungeon looks just as ominous as ever, showing the ruins of the spot they're standing in the same half crumbled state that the interior of the other dungeons have been. But coated in a red tint.
The Seraphim says there are two Righteous Hosts, so either this is more of the same, or it should be something they consider righteous. Neither option really says 'happy fun time' to Cain.
"I've got six Oath Breakers merged with me, so I'll enter first and then call for everyone once I see what's there." If what's in there enrages at what he sends in and destroys the Summon right away he'll never find out what it is. Plus, he's got a load of HP and damage reduction.
Filled with confidence, Cain steps through the portal and is immediately engulfed in flames, his HP globe dropping like it has a hole in the bottom.
Jumping and using Cloud Dancing to get out of the range of the damaging effect, Cain discovers that the fire is actually Dragon Breath. In fact there are Dragons everywhere. Both the ground and sky are packed with them to the point Cain is surprised they can fly. He scans around, recording as many as he possibly can, when he finally looks at their descriptions.
"Level 384 Divine Fire Dragon. Fuck that, I'm out."
With scaling, any dungeon mob more than 100 levels above you takes no damage. Cain couldn't hurt these if he wanted to. He collected a bunch of new Dragon forms though.
"So, how does it look?" Laura asks when Cain comes fleeing back through the portal.
"There's a level 384 Divine Fire Dragon at the entrance and he's not happy to see me. Or maybe he is, but not in the good way. Let's just put the big rock back over that one for now."
The Diamond Elementals oblige, placing a huge black chunk of obelisk over the portal for everyone's safety.
"Can't you go back and get more Dragon forms? I could be Legendary." Laura pouts.
"Maybe another day. I've been scorched enough today. Plus, I need new armor, only my accessories survived that encounter." Cain's gear is mostly beyond repair, destroyed and crumbling or burnt to ash.
He checks his inventory to see if he got anything from the Seraphim dungeon that might replace what he was using, finding it dropped better than expected amounts of gear, where the Stone Giant dungeon was mostly smithy materials.
From the various dungeons he's competed since fully emptying his inventory, Cain finds a toga, sandals, gauntlets and a Golden helmet that all give bonuses to construct damage, as good or better than what his old gear did. Hopefully he can equip pants with a toga, it looks like it might let a lot of sand in while exploring the desert.
On equip the toga becomes a white silk tunic shirt on Cain, which is a better outcome than expected, so he looks for new pants in his inventory, finding a pair from the Stone Giant dungeon that increase all resistance. It's not bonus damage, but it might be even better if things like ancient Dragons are going to be setting him on fire.
They equip as past the knee length leather cargo shorts. Combined with the tunic shirt and sandals, plus the helmet that equipped to look like a thin golden braided headband, Cain feels like a fashion impaired hippie tourist. But it's really good gear. Like, really good.
Oh, there's a Legendary Item drop in his inventory.
[Belt of the Heavenly Host] double the number of Heavenly Host units Summoned.
Now that's the sort of drop he needed. It's like that whole dungeon was tailor made for him. Except the fashion. Yes, everything but that. The belt equips over the tunic shirt as a loop made of gold coins, somewhat tacky, but it blends in with the almost bohemian look he's got going on.
There's lots of Turtles to tank, so Seraphim Warriors as his Greater Golems should be a nice damage increase. He also can't discount the fact that they can fly, because air superiority is never a bad thing.
Cain calls them to replace the Granite Elemental forces he had active, getting 32 winged warriors with spears and Short swords. These ones have Golden Chest plates over their toga, form fitted and emphasizing their presumed assets in the ancient Greek ornamental fashion.
Cain is busy admiring his new summons when he becomes aware he's being watched. The area is oddly quiet when Cain turns to see what's going on and Cain realizes everyone is frozen, as if time stopped. Even the grape Nemu was eating is stopped in mid air.
Two small six winged girls, one with white wings, one with black, are sitting between Cain and Vala, a puppy between them, smiling up at him with its tongue hanging out.
Cain smiles back at the happy puppy before addressing the situation at hand. "Good morning. Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Not really, we were just betting on if you could beat the synthetic Seraphim we left in the Dungeon spell. I won a whole week with the puppy." The Black winged one informs him and Cain quickly records the two beings and their puppy.
"Synthetic?" Cain finally asks.
"You didn't expect a full grown Seraphim to just stay in a dungeon spell for centuries did you? Even we could walk out of that, much less a Seraphim of my parents power." The White winged girl laughs.
"Even the stronger Dragons in the other portal are just clones. The real ones left ages ago." Her black winged friend adds.
"We have to go. If anyone asks, you didn't see us and you don't know where we got the puppy." The White winged girl says before they vanish and time starts moving again.
That has to be the strangest interaction Cain has had since arriving here, so he checks the log to see what they were.
[Seraphim Child] Legendary Divine Being
[Fallen Seraphim Child] Legendary Demon
[Mittens] Female Werewolf Age 3 Class undetermined
You know what, it's better to just pretend that never happened.
"Now that we know what's in each of the portals, how about we try setting this up as a Guild Castle?" Cain suggests to his Companions who don't know anything unusual just happened, trying to move that strange group of kids out of his mind.
But where did they get the werewolf puppy from? Try as he might, it's just stuck in his thoughts.
In theory the process to set a Guild Castle is simple, go to the Guild Master section of his interface, select add a Guild Property and then place a Guild Token on the front door of a property the Guild owns. Signing and stamping a Guild Property purchase document does all these steps for you, so this is the first time Cain has done it manually.
Cain follows the steps as he understands them, going to the front gate and placing the token he got when he chose to add a Guild Property, against the gates of the castle.
[Castles Require Names: Enter Castle Name]
Oh no, Cain is terrible at naming things and he can't open chat until he finishes the registration process. Hopefully nobody gets too mad at his lack of creativity.
[Fort Darklight] registered as Guild Castle. Guild maximum members expanded by 100. Castle services now available in Guild Management.
That's cool, he can see all the potential homes and shops in the castle he designed, assign tenancy to them, collect taxes. A Guild Castle is basically a small town, and not just a Guild only facility. He can even set a travel circle here to their house in Assah, or a Guild House Travel location from the keep to the other Guild Houses, as the keep is registered as the Guild Dwelling.
