The next morning after breakfast Cain decides it's time to go back to the Beastkin dungeon. Dimnys plans to stay here in town and talk shop with the blacksmiths, but Kone wants to come along and see if they can get to a hundred forms of Beastkin and upgrade Nemu. Vala became a better fighter, with a doubled intensity damage increase aura. But Nemu is a bard, and none of them are sure what will happen if she evolves.
Dimnys and Ragnar are out in a hurry, off to discuss something smithy related. Dimnys has a few techniques and materials not available here, and Ragnar thinks it will be well received by the others.
Kone has developed a theory that the design of Companions is a much desire as requirement. After all, just look at the ones Cain has gotten so far. Demons and Felians, but both beautiful women. So her theory is that if she focuses hard enough during the transition to a Greatest Beastkin Companion, she can influence the process to give Nemu an even fluffier tail.
There's a twisted logic behind that, and Cain can't say for certain that she's wrong. So the only thing left to do is test the theory out in person.
The Dwarf at the guard station near the dungeons laughs when he sees the party again. "Aye, idiot! You know they can smell demons from miles away right?" The guard shouts in a serious tone before returning to laughter.
"Thanks! This time it's actually the plan though. We're going to try to speed clear the area and get an entire level today." Cain laughs back and the guard shakes his head.
"An entire level above 70 in a day? I'll give you this, you're an ambitious one. Good luck, and keep the little ladies safe."
Cain mentally adds up all the allies that will be in the dungeon with them. Him and Kone, 4 companions, 4 supporters, 20 Poisoned Wasps, 12 Lesser Golems and 8 Greater Golems. An even thousand percent experience bonus. Good thing they packed a heavy lunch, courtesy of Bertha. Cain isn't going to want to leave this paradise of constant experience gains.
They Summon the Greater Golems as Wrath Bringers again before stepping into the Dungeon, this time summoning the other Golems and Wasps intermingled with the creatures at the door instead of clearing the area first.
Nemu is casting increases to their attack speed and slowing the enemy, but not using pacify today, so the enemies are a constant stream. The experience gains are incredible as usual, and they're also still finding new patterns of Feral Beastkin on a fairly regular basis. The packs near the door today aren't the same as what was standing here last time.
There's a swamp to the south of the portal, according to Vala and Nemu who can both smell it, so they start fighting their way towards it and away from the entry. They're not getting many amphibian type Beastkin here by the entry, and Cain is eager to find more new species as fast as possible.
Some of them aren't adding to his companions list at all though. They've found Lamia Kin who added to his Supporter options, more bestial Lamia Kin who are Companions and very Similar looking Naga Kin who are a Lesser Golem type. Power doesn't seem to be the difference, as the Naga kin were no weaker than the Lamia Kin, but the Lamia Kin could speak. So perhaps the difference between Golem and the others is intelligence, with Fairies being the very upper range of Golem with their ability to speak, but rather primitive thought processes that remind Cain of a very smart dog. Under the influence of the dungeon though, the Beastkin are all rabidly violent so it's hard to tell.
On the other hand, Supporter versus Companion is easy to determine, only certain forms of Beastkin are available to transfers. If a transfer can pick that form, it's a Supporter, if not, it falls under Companion.
As they get to the edge of the swamp the number of new species picks back up to every second or third group. Frogs, geckos, crocodiles, snakes and Turtles form the bestial side of dozens of different Beastkin species.
[Level Up]
[Cain Has reached level 72]
Kone smiles upon seeing the message, that's half their goal for the day down. She herself is very close to reaching her second level of the day, but she's getting even more additional experience for her lower level, so the gap is slowly closing between the two of them. Not that she will fully catch up anytime soon, but she doesn't feel so under leveled anymore.
Cain is very excited when an Elite Snapping Turtle Kin with a heavy shield is saved as a Greater Golem. They'll make an excellent Tank, even the combined might of the party had a hard time breaching their defenses and they're bigger than the Trolls, when you account for their large shell. Cain sees more varieties of Turtles coming and wonders if its possible to teach the lesser Golems Kung Fu, but knows Kone and his companions wouldn't get the reference.
The swamp doesn't seem to have as many residents as the city by the gate, and the new species starts slowing down just after Cain reaches 90 total.
"Should we stick it out here, or head to whatever is creating that light?" Cain asks Kone, pointing towards what looks like fire reflected in the clouds.
"It doesn't seem to be spreading, or smoking, so maybe it is a town? We can try that for sure." Kone nods her head and looks for a good way out of the swampy area without getting soaked.
The group moves back the way they came, and then skirts the East side of the swamp, where a dark and dense forest meets with the wet marsh and more scattered vegetation. The scrub and bushes at the edge of the forest are a pain to move though, literally, as they've got sharp Thorns, so the group moves further in past the tree line, finding new species of Wolf and Spider Kin.
That's good news to Cain, they're almost to their goal now. But the further they try to go, the higher the level of their opponents gets.
"I think we're going to have to try for the last few on out way back to the gate. These are up to level 85 now, if we push any further we might get ourselves trapped and surrounded by Beastkin we can't kill quickly." Cain says quietly to Kone.
"Might as well, it's not like we can take a proper meal break in here either, and it's already been quite a while."
They have no way of telling time precisely in here, but by Cain's best estimate it's been 6 hours or more, and they've only managed to snack on the meals packed for them between fights. They're not starving, but sitting down to dinner sounds really good right now.
[Summon Greater Beastkin Companion 99/100]
The notification comes as Cain records a spider like creature with a human upper torso at the front and a black spider body with a red hourglass marking on his back. He is massive, over 4 meters tall thanks to his long spider legs. Kone is having troubles with the poison he's shooting out, so Cain resorts to swapping his Greater Golems whenever too many of them get Poisoned, saving her a lot of mana and effort.
The Druid version of cleansing takes far more mana than Cure Poison does, but also works on minor curses and is a class ability instead of a book learned skill.
"Okay, next one is the big one. I also have a theory that the enemy we pick to fight for the upgrade matters, so let's find a good one." Cain tells Kone.
"You want a good fight? We'll give you a good fight." Comes a voice from the shadows and five Dark Furred Felians come out.
