Bloom - Sproutling 130

Two men, and two women sat in the small forest clearing they had just recently finished battle in. Their surrounding dead enemies had small green bodies, minus one large ear apiece, and slowly melted down under the dungeon’s influence.

“I’m just saying it’s weird! Everyone knows dungeons don’t build on the surface!” the rogue of the party, Melissa said her voice argumentative. She fiddled with a sharpened silver coin between her fingers that was stamped with the long dead image of a past kingdom’s ruler. Her other hand constantly touched the throwing daggers strapped to her tight forest green-brown leather armor. Eyes of forest emerald green gave a devastating contrast to her short brown hair. As a cultivator in the path of Darkness, she exuded the silent coldness of an icy beauty.

“The Glass Garden isn’t a dungeon, no one has even seen anything resembling a second floor!” the party’s mage Alexus said, his tone amused. Small wisps of flame circled his finger like moving dragon rings. The staff across his knees was tipped by a low quality carved gem. Every so often the gem would burn with inner fire as if a pulsing eye was scanning the surrounding. Robes of dark brown and red accentuated a pale face framed by silvered glasses. Golden trimmed runes along the robe explained to any who saw it the mage’s path of Fire. While no one would claim he was world toppling handsome like their tank, Alexus could easily stand out in a crowd due to his elegant intellectual charm.

“Will both of you shut it? It’s hard enough to concentrate on healing this lunk without the added benefit of your sparkling discourse.” the party’s healer, Vivian said, her hands glowing as they emitted golden-green light. Ice blue eyes framed by long golden locks and jade white skin combined in a devastating combo. Beneath her hands, the final member of the four person delving team, Andrew lay stoic as the energy repaired his body. With bright red hair, and gray eyes, the golden boy of the party managed to hold off his admirers by being completely devoted to his healing childhood companion. Both the tank and healer of the party were rarely seen geniuses in the path of Metal and Light. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were the perfect golden couple, each would receive more offers of marriage than they already did. As it was, they were currently engaged, although it would wait on their family’s negotiations before anything further than heavy petting could be done.

“It acts like a dungeon, has rewards like a dungeon, and kills like a dungeon.” Andrew said, his combination of plate and chainmail creaking as he stood up when Vivian finished. After the healer wiped his face clean from the most recent battle he moved to pick up his arms. Grasping a tower shield, and a heavy mace nearby Andrew shrugged, “If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and tastes like a duck, who gives a succubus’s tit if it’s goat? Not me.”

“Your impeccable brute logic once again beats down the superior intellect around you.” Alexus said, rising from the small burned stump he’d been sitting on.

“Fancy thinking is only good for court politics and backstabbing scum. Everything else can be solved with violence!” Andrew said, smirking as he took the position behind Melissa who moved ahead on point. His mace cracked against a nearby offending sapling to emphasize his point. Melissa turned back to give him a death glare at the loud noise before fading into the forestry ahead of them.

Vivian who was standing behind Andrew as they moved forward watched the splinters ping off his armor in amusement. Behind both of them Alexus moved with uncanny haste as a wispy orange glow followed behind him. The instant-cast flame shield had saved them more than once in this delve.

“If you treat the different biomes as floors then the Glass Garden is the largest dungeon in the world, with the exception of Hell’s Depths. I’m just saying, even though there is massive diversity in the Garden, it doesn’t make it a dungeon.” Alexus said, his eyes roving around searching for danger. “No one, even to this day has seen anything like a Core anywhere.”

Vivian finally joined in on the side of Melissa since the rogue was too busy scouting ahead to comment, “The fact that in two centuries not a single S-Rank that attempted to find the Core has ever returned doesn’t make you suspicious?”

“Just because a bunch of overpowered drooling idiots with lucky encounters happened to fail to find a Core, means nothing! Half the time those bastards are setting rules to steal the best leveling areas for their personal cultivation, and the other half of the time they are fighting each other!” Alexus said, his face annoyed. If it wasn’t for the fact that above B-Rank it required either extreme wealth, or extreme connections to move higher he was sure he’d have pushed above upper B-rank by now. The fact that almost eighty percent of the world’s S-Ranks had vanished in the Glass Garden made him rather smug. Even though he was sure it wasn’t a dungeon, he was just as sure something was keeping everything running smoothly. That something was clearly powerful enough to beat down the various Guilds, Sects, and Clans. Without such a massive shift in the balance of power in the world, it was likely Adventurers lower than A-Rank would never have been allowed into the Glass Garden. The cultivation speed alone had boosted his party from low B to upper B in a single year of fighting constantly inside. The constant cycle of fighting, looting, selling, and fighting again had pushed everyone upwards in the ranks.

There were even rumors a new crop of S-Ranks had managed to be formed, although all sides seemed to be keeping their cards close for now.

“Aren’t you going to give a nod to the Lizards?” Andrew said, cutting into the argument as he smashed a large log in the way to pieces. His timely reminder allowed Alexus’s face to widen in a grin.

“Exactly! The entire Bluescale kingdom claims this place is the territory of a powerful monster.” Alexus said, smug. “A powerful monster not a Core. Looking around the creatures is clearly insanely strong. There are over a thousand different biomes in the place, from desert, to forest. Some of them are even popular enough to have their own names!”

“The Seven Hells of Ice and Fire is not exactly a great naming sense, dungeon or not.” Vivian shot back as she ducked under a low hanging branch. Before the snake lying in wait could strike it was roasted to death by red flames. Such ambush predators were no match for the small Fire domain that Alexus could keep around the party.

“I’m just saying,” Alexus said, as he looked away from the burning small-time predator. “It’s not a dungeon. Therefore, using the dungeon rule of letting the first to find a place name it shouldn’t apply either! Then we wouldn’t have names like that.”

Everyone went silent as Melissa returned from up ahead.

The rogue’s face was glittering with glee as she practically teleported to Vivian in ecstatic speed before whispering a few words. Both women glanced at the men as they continued their whispers.

Finally they turned to the male members of the party and declared, “We are now officially, wealthy.”

The men of the party had questioning looks before Melissa simply said, “Mana crystals.” Her expression clearly said ‘praise me’ with no ambiguousness.

“Ah, the lucky charm has struck again.” Alexus said in disgust. “This place is clearly biased towards females.”

Andrew nodded, “Remember that time we managed to kill the lesser wyvern? And what did we get?!”

“Nothing!” both men said, in a chorus that had clearly been done a few times.

“Except for the body.” Melissa said snorting in amusement.

“As if that compares to the time Vivian went to find a water source and stumbled into a Mana Pool?” Alexus said, while rolling his eyes.

“Or the time Melissa was ambushed by gnomes, who happened to have the perfect cultivation skill for Darkness on them?”

“Oh, oh! Remember that time that Vivian was complaining about us being poor and suddenly we walk out of the forest into a hill biome with gold literally popping out of a cave crevice!?”

Both men nod to themselves, it is well known among the Adventurers in the Glass Garden, the place is clearly biased!

The largest, most biased, non-Dungeon in the world!

As the party exited the forest into the latest clearing the glaring sight of towering mana crystals reflecting the sun met them.

“So now the real problem is…” Alexus said looking around, “…use or sell?”