Chapter 18: Too Many Adventurers (Part 2)

That thought remained in the back of Zion’s mind even as another part of his attention was pulled toward a very different instance.

Four young adventurers had barely made it beyond the entrance, and everything about them looked new. Their leather armor was stiff instead of worn, their weapons were cheap but recently purchased, and they kept looking toward one another before making even the simplest decision.

The boy holding the shield seemed particularly nervous.

A single sheep grazed nearby.

The group stopped and stared at it from a distance.

"Okay," the shield user said. "Just like we practiced."

The girl carrying a short sword nodded.

"It’s one sheep, we can do this."

Another boy holding a small wooden staff swallowed.

"People said the sheep were harder than they looked."

"It’s still a sheep."

Zion found himself watching them more closely.

The swordswoman approached first. The sheep lifted its head, and she raised her weapon just as it charged. Her confidence disappeared immediately.

She swung too early, sending the blade through empty air in front of the sheep’s face. A moment later, the animal slammed directly into her stomach hard enough to throw her backward into the grass.

The shield user panicked.

"Lina!"

He rushed forward to help her, which brought him close enough to the surrounding flock for Pack Mentality to activate.

Two more sheep lifted their heads farther down the hill. They turned toward the group and started running, gaining speed very quickly.

"Well this doesn’t look good for them," Zion muttered. He recognized the mistake before the adventurers did.

The shield user struck the first sheep with the flat of his weapon, but the blow barely moved it. A second sheep hit his shield from the side and twisted him around, while the third charged straight toward the boy holding the staff.

The mage raised both hands. A tiny spark appeared between them.Then, before anything could happen, it flickered out.

"What happened?"

"I don’t know!"

The sheep hit him before he could try again.

The fourth adventurer, a girl carrying a bow, fired from only a few steps away and somehow missed completely.

Within less than a minute, the carefully prepared four-person party had become a collection of bodies scattered across Zion’s pasture.

He watched with growing concern as the swordswoman tried to stand first. The original sheep immediately charged again, struck her in the chest, and sent her back into the grass.

This time, she didn’t move. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then pale light appeared around her body, spreading across her in thin lines before suddenly brightening.

Her sword, the pouch at her waist, and several smaller items dropped into the grass while the girl herself disappeared.

A notification appeared at the same time.

[Adventurer defeated.]

[Protected Floor conditions active.]

[Defeated adventurer expelled from dungeon.]

[Unsecured carried items forfeited.]

[Defeat Essence acquired: 25]

Zion read the message before checking the entrance.

The swordswoman was sitting just outside the dungeon boundary with both hands pressed against her chest. She looked dazed and deeply embarrassed.

But she was alive.

"So they don’t die."

Before he could process that fully, the shield user went down too. The same pale light surrounded him, several pieces of equipment dropped beside his body, and he vanished from the floor.

[Adventurer defeated.]

[Defeat Essence acquired: 25]

The mage lasted another twelve seconds.

[Adventurer defeated.]

[Defeat Essence acquired: 25]

The archer tried to run once she realized she was alone, but she only made it a short distance toward the entrance before three sheep caught her from behind.

[Adventurer defeated.]

[Defeat Essence acquired: 25]

The pasture became quiet.

Four piles of equipment remained scattered through the grass, while another hundred essence had been added to Zion’s reserves simply because the party had lost.

He stared at the empty instance for several seconds.

Until now, he’d assumed every serious fight carried the possibility of death. Monsters attacked adventurers, adventurers attacked monsters, and eventually someone failed to get back up.

Apparently, the first floor worked very differently.

He opened the information attached to the notification.

[Protected Floor]

[Designated low-depth floors may operate under nonlethal defeat conditions.]

[Upon defeat, eligible adventurers are expelled from the dungeon.]

[Items not protected by binding, storage enchantment, or defeat exemption may be claimed by the dungeon.]

He slowly looked over the abandoned equipment. There was the short sword, the shield, several potions, a bow, and even a small pouch of coins.

The sheep had beaten four adventurers, taken some of their belongings, and earned Zion one hundred essence for doing it.

He was beginning to understand why dungeons wanted visitors.

A notification from another instance interrupted the thought.

[Floor 1 cleared.]

[Clear Essence acquired: 100]

Zion shifted his attention toward the powerful three-person party. They were already standing inside the barn. The Horned Ram was gone. He missed the entire fight.

While Zion had been busy watching four beginners lose to a sheep, these three had apparently crossed the rest of Floor 1 and killed his boss quickly enough that he hadn’t even noticed.

The swordsman looked toward the rear wall.

"No chest?"

His companion shrugged.

"Maybe the rumor was about a rare drop."

"Shame."

They turned around and started back toward the entrance without saying much else.

Zion watched them leave with considerably less enthusiasm than he’d felt earlier. Earning one hundred essence from a floor clear was excellent.

Watching adventurers erase the entire floor without slowing down was considerably less comforting.

More notifications began arriving as other parties reached the barn.

[Floor 1 cleared.]

[Clear Essence acquired: 100]

[Floor 1 cleared.]

[Clear Essence acquired: 100]

His essence balance was climbing faster than he’d ever seen it move, but the number no longer held his attention like it had a few minutes earlier.

Somewhere outside his dungeon were people capable of killing the Horned Ram almost casually. And there were almost certainly others much stronger than them.

In a little over ten days, the Founding Grace protecting Zion from those people would disappear.

He looked across the many active instances of Floor 1. Watching them all at once felt strangely similar to staring at a wall of televisions, each showing a different version of the same pasture.

In one, an experienced party cut through the sheep without difficulty.

In another, a group of beginners carefully separated a single animal from its flock after apparently learning from someone else’s mistakes.

Somewhere else, two adventurers were arguing over whether the barn itself might contain a hidden chest.

The difference between them was enormous.

Some adventurers were barely strong enough to survive his first floor. Others had already outgrown everything on it before they ever stepped through the entrance.

Zion was beginning to understand that he couldn’t design every floor for the same kind of person.

Floor 1 could teach beginners, generate essence, collect abandoned equipment, and give people a reason to enter–which was useful. But somewhere deeper, he needed something built specifically for the adventurers who made sheep look harmless.

Something capable of actually stopping them.

Zion looked toward Floor 2 without thinking about how much it was going to cost. After watching what stronger adventurers could do to the pasture, the expense suddenly seemed much less important.

He needed another layer between them and his throne room. As soon as possible.

He looked toward the empty second floor.

"I need to finish this."