Danmachi-Hell's forge

Storing away the blade I continued my journey down to the great tree labyrinth. The sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth floors were quiet or at least nothing odd happened there. The Goliath had of course respawned and been killed already during this time which I could only shrug about missing. I certainly wasn't going to regret the time I spent familiarizing myself with the changes that came after my level up. Understanding my limits and current standing was arguably way more fucking important than some smoke I could just make up for later.-

When I got to the forested eighteenth floor I briefly stopped in the town there to see if anyone had seen anything interesting. The town of Rivira was comprised entirely of wood and even had a large sign that told the amount of times it had been sacked over the years by the floor getting a surge of monsters from above or below it. [Rivira- 36th iteration] the sign read which sounded like a lot but it should be pointed out that the town had been around for easily several hundred years or at least since shortly after the first clear of the Goliath.-

This meant that the fact the number wasn't drastically higher was very impressive.

"First time on the eighteenth floor huh? All the newbies gawk at the town when they first get here." A dark skinned stout man with a scar running through his left eye that was covered with an eyepatch said with a smirk.

"You must be Bors, that or that intel broker owes me an explanation." I said with a chuckle.

"Oh? Seems you aren't all brass and got a brain to you after all. Most newbies are so eager to get down here that they neglect to gather information first, seen many a party killed as a result. Hornets mostly from what I've seen." Bors said with a nod of approval.

"Sounds about right. To answer your original statement though, no this is not my first time on this floor but rather until now I've never had a reason to come into town." I said honestly.

"Just as odd as the rumors say then since most stop here first before moving further down. Got me curious kid, what changed for you to come here now then?" the guy asked curiously.

"I'm looking for information on the recent happenings of the dungeon past this point, variants, treasures, the usual stuff worth knowing. This towns a hub for information of this nature so here I am." I said honestly.

Bors smiled widely "You came to the right place then, old Bors here has all the latest news for discerning customers who are willing to pay for it." he said with a greedy look.

I had already expected this and reached into my bag and took out a small cloth sack of coins that I tossed to him. "Thirty thousand valis, I hope your information is good because I'll be quite miffed if it's less than stellar at that price." I said with flickers of hellfire rolling off my body to make my point crystal clear.

"A-ah yeah of course it's worth it!" the man said stuttering slightly in nervousness at the thinly veiled threat.

Luckily for the man his information was quite comprehensive and thus worth the price I paid. Honestly speaking it wasn't even a lot of money for me anymore since I could earn a vastly larger sum by taking commissions from Ptah or even just making a single customized weapon.-

He told me of the rush to collect the dropped poison blood of the dread grubs after the guild finally announced their basic research on the drops uses. Alchemists across the city were scrambling to get some of the dropped liquid in hopes of being the first to create a new type of potion with it. This ironically also meant that the great tree labyrinth was getting more explored as people carved out grub hunting spots for themselves forcing other adventurers to go look elsewhere. According to Bors this wasn't anything new as something similar happened whenever something new was discovered in the dungeon.-

That aside this rampant greed fueled exploration lead to even more discoveries which in turn fueled this vicious cycle even further. One issue though was that the amount of variants in the great tree labyrinth was starting to grow as a result of a few foolish people killing monsters but not collecting the stones since they weren't what they were after. According to Bors the current biggest threat in terms of the known variants was a Lizard man who had evolved to have wings and draconic features while doubling in size. The creature was estimated to be around high level three or fresh leveled four.-

I was quite interested in this variant in particular for one reason that Bors told me, it was able to use a crude form of mana enhancement. Mana was obviously not just used for casting spells but in a warriors hands could be used to enhance their bodies in a pinch. It wasn't efficient at all and was hardly worth using regularly but in a life and death type situation it was sometimes just enough to give the slightest edge that allowed the warrior to survive a normally fatal event.-

For a monster to utilize even a crude form of this meant the thing had insane energy control talent and that meant it's body was the perfect ingredients for me to finally upgrade my magic stone conversion cursed tools. The ones I was currently using at the Hestia property took hours to convert even the stones of a level one monster to the cursed stone counterpart which wasn't great for my current level of crafting needs. Don't get me wrong it's drastically better than nothing at all but certainly needed an upgrade. Right now I was using wyvern parts to make the things but this variant sounds like it would serve as a far better material for me to utilize for this purpose.-

Other than that Bors told me about the general state of the great tree labyrinth, monster density, weather, the works. It took a few hours for the man to spill all the information he knew on the topic so i ended up having to camp out for the night on the floor which Hestia wasn't thrilled about but didn't complain TOO much. Still with all this information nice and securely squared away in my noggin I was ready for tomorrow.

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