Dungeons

While the goal of defeating a dungeon was usually to loot the accumulated treasures high-level mana beasts had amassed through their lives, most of the profit usually came from collecting the beast cores on the way down. In most cases, even if parties couldn’t defeat or even clear a dungeon, they were still able to come out with a hefty sum from just the beast cores, which could be sold for a high price depending on their level.

## Dire Tombs

This dungeon was deemed AA class, meaning parties with only A class and above were allowed to enter.

The Dire Tombs was a unique place, even amongst the mysterious dungeons. The beasts that made their homes here had been described in the records as "undead." When Note visited this place, he has never heard of mana beasts that could come back to life. Because of this, one of the hardest aspects of clearing this dungeon seemed to be the endless amount of undead mana beasts. Digging deeper, some adventurers and mage guilds even speculated that inside the bottom of this dungeon might be a special artifact that was able to reanimate dead mana beasts, but no one had been able to prove it. Clearing the dungeon meant that the area had to be explored. It was different from conquering the dungeon, where the mana beasts inside had been defeated and the treasures looted. This dungeon had been cleared—or at least it was, until Brald had discovered the hidden passage—but never defeated. One of the reasons this dungeon had been unpopular, and why Note’s party was the only one inside the dungeon was because the mana beasts here had no cores. This meant a big chunk of revenue from trying to clear the dungeon would be gone. **The** **first level of this dungeon** is an underground cave no larger than fifty meters in diameter. The whole cave was glowing in a dim, blue color, while above the cave was covered in stalactites. Batrunners inhabit the first level of the dungeon. Batrunners are mana beasts that look like large bats, except with four limbs replacing what normally would’ve been wings. The hollow body of the bat-like mana beasts had their ribs fully visible and inside it, where the beast core should’ve been, was a cracked rock. Batrunners are not strong individually, but they attack in groups. **The second level of this dungeon** was another dark corridor just wide enough for four people to go through at once. Strategically placed mana beasts hide in this place and shoot metal spikes at the intruders. **The third level of this dungeon** was similar to the previous cave, but twice the size and littered with suspicious holes all over the ground. When Note and his party reached this place, a giant worm-like mana beast appeared from the ground, yet instead of attacking, the red worm-beast was burrowing itself into the walls of the cave, creating more holes from all different angles, but it never confronted them. Nevertheless, the holes that were here since the beginning and the holes littered across the ground, roof, and walls made by the giant worm all trembled before they released a fiery torrent of deadly gas. Note managed to realise this in time, warning his companions of the upcoming danger, yet Oliver Hemmbet didn’t manage to make it, since he was too far away from the fire barrier that Lucas Wykes created. Samantha Tempest reinforced the fire barrier before it crumpled by creating a water barrier. Afterwards, the group moved on towards the next level, yet the red worm-beast appeared before the exit and stopped the group in their tracks. After a scuffle with the the red worm-beast, it disappeared again as another eruption exploded out of the holes. Brald Landon lost an arm during the eruption, because he protected Samantha Tempest, while Note protected Lucas who was caught off guard. They moved on and reached the fourth level. **The fourth level of this dungeon** was another dim hallway, much wider than the last one and they took a break there. During the break, it was decided that Note became the leader of this group, which he accepted. After recuperating, they moved on. This hall wasn’t as long as the previous ones but at the end of the hall was a large, double door with unfamiliar runes etched all over it. Reginald Bastion tore the door open, which revealed **the last level of this dungeon**. On the other side of the large door was a beautiful meadow that stretched out far beyond everyone’s view, while rows of stalactites hung high up on the ceiling, which glowed brightly. Moreover, tall trees and bushels of shrubs dotted the field. There were no pillars visible and this area stretched for at least a few hundred meters in all directions. There was also a thin veil of haze layered over the meadow but that was it. While the group tried to assess the area Kriol dropped his shield and ran into the mist whilst screaming for his deceased fiancé. Jasmine deduces that the mist in the area is inducing hallucinations, which Brald and Reginald confirm as they witnessed Clara’s death. While Samantha put up a water barrier, Lucas once again lashed out at Brald and Reginald for the party’s misfortunes. Brald however does not argue with Lucas. After Jasmine blows the wind away with her Banshee’s Howl, the party is surprised at the sudden appearance of so many vines. Afterwards, Brald, Jasmine, and Note hacked away at the vines to clear a path. As the vines continued to grow back rapidly, Brald began to attack recklessly, screaming that mere vines would not be able to hold back an AA-Rank adventurer. While distracted by his own madness, Brald was entangled by the roots. Note quickly freed Brald from the vines and reprimanded Brald for his behavior, asking if he was planning on leaving the dungeon alive. Ashamed of his actions, Brald tried to regain his composure and defend his teammates only to be consumed once again at the sight of the perpetrator of the vines: The Elderwood Guardian. Moreover, inside the Elderwood Guardian’s chest was Kriol Masser. Infuriated by this, Reginald fought against the monster, while Elijah supported him. Nevertheless, Reginald was captured by the Guardian as well. Note ordered Lucas to aid Reginald, only for Lucas to attack Note pointblank. After attacking Note, Lucas also blasted Jasmine unconscious. Believing they were all goners, Lucas attempted to sacrifice his teammates while he escaped alone. As most of his teammates were injured or death, Brald quickly sprinted to Elijah to protect him from the Elderwood Guardian. Brald unleashed his full power in an attempt to hold off the beast, burning a giant gash into it’s body. While the attack injured the Elderwood Guardian, it did not leave any significant damage, only infuriating the monster as it set its sights on Brald. With his spirit broken, Brald laid down his sword as the Elderwood Guardian entangled him in its vines, killing the veteran adventurer. At this point, the Elder Wood Guardian has already killed three members of the group. While his efforts were in vain, Note was able to recover in time to use his integrate phase of his beast will to kill the Elderwood Guardian. After the remaining exploration members escaped, the adventurer’s guild dispatched a recovery team to retrieve the deceased bodies of Kriol Masser, Reginald Bastion and Brald Landon who was returned to his family.

## Widow's Crypt

Widow’s Crypt is a fairly straightforward D-Class dungeon without any traps or mazes. This dungeon is divided into more than ten floors. It is, however, very cold in there. The mana beasts living inside this dungeon are nasty little creatures called snarlers. There are two types of snarlers in this dungeon that one needs to be wary of: the minion snarlers and the queen snarler. The **minion snarlers** are **E Class** Mana beasts. With a thick grey fur coat, their 140cm bodies looked like muscular mini gorillas. Their faces, though, were a mix of a boar’s snout and tusks with beady red eyes and long ears. With their thick and powerful protruding jaw, you wouldn’t think they were only E stage mana beasts upon first glance. Their queen, the **Widow Queen**, however is a **B Class** Mana beast. The Widow Queen is a few times larger and nastier than their minions and also possesses wings, which it uses to fly. The queen snarlers’ front two limbs had four long, sharp claws that glistened in a coating that Arthur assumed was poison. This queen is quite a bit stronger than the E class minions that she commands. Minion snarlers inhabit all but the tenth floor, where the queen snarler dwells. This dungeon is generally a "safer" dungeon route for E-Rank adventurers as the queen never left the tenth floor, allowing for easy training up until the very last floor. While it may be tough for beginners, a well coordinated party of E class adventurers can still take down the Widow Queen during a dungeon run.

**The first floor of the Widow’s Crypt** is a cavern. The cavern stretched out for hundreds of yards, making one wonder how it even supported itself. The stone that made up the large cavern sparkled with a dim blue light as a thin layer of ice covered the floor and even formed icicles on the ceiling. Looking closely, one could see the nearly transparent layer of moss that covered the cavern walls and ceiling, enveloping this floor in a serene light.

### Background

Professor Glory decided to take her Team Fight Tactics class on a field trip to a dungeon. Professor Glory ended up going to a corrupted dungeon where the students had to fight an army of minion snarlers upon arrival on the first floor of the dungeon. Normally, even in the lower floors, there are never this many snarlers bunched together, yet the students realised that reality begged to differ. Professor Glory wanted to get out of the dungeon, because of the unusual amount of snarlers suddenly appearing on the first floor, but her students in particular Lucas Wykes, convinced her to stay as this would be a valuable learning opportunity for them. Professor Glory gave in, but demanded that if she feels that something isn’t right, they’re immediately out of there. As the class agreed, they split up in previously decided groups and fought the army head on. The snarlers weren’t very strong, but after about thirty minutes the seemingly endless numbers that never dwindled were taking its toll on the students. Eventually, the different teams that split up went near Professor Glory while fighting off the army. As Tess mentioned their exhaustion, Professor Glory decided without hesitation to head back, yet just as the students tried to head back up the stairs, a loud crash resounded as the icicles and stalactites, along with other rubble from the roof of the cave came crashing to the ground as two Queen Snarlers came floating down. As Queen Snarlers are territorial, normally one wouldn’t find more than one at the bottom floor of this dungeon. Nevertheless, two Queen Snarlers appeared out of nowhere at the first floor of this dungeon, blocking the students escape route. Thereafter, the class stalled the minion snarlers while Professor Glory took on the two bosses head on. Just as Professor Glory managed to land a finishing blow on the smaller queen, the bigger Queen send her flying while Professor Glory landed hard against a wave of minion snarlers. Following that, the bigger queen snarler gorged on the corpse of the fallen queen. Professor Glory has heard that some species of mana beasts do indulge in cannibalism, but she has never really seen this particular case. Nevertheless, as the queen snarler finished consuming her fallen comrade, a bizarre change occurred. It’s once grey fur turned jet black and the small horn on it’s forehead that Arthur failed to notice at first curved upwards, growing substantially. The once beady red eyes turned sharp and menacing—almost psychotic—as it began foaming from it’s mouth as well. Moreover, when the fight between Professor Glory and the Widow Queen resumed, another change can also be perceived. The fighting style of the queen snarler had completely changed. There was no trace of hesitation or sense of self-preservation. Each attack it lashed out at Professor Glory was with the intent to kill without caring for it’s own body. Usually that should’ve been it’s downfall, but that unique queen snarler’s black fur was able to absorb most of the damage from our professor’s attacks. As Professor Glory fought a losing battle with the mutated Widow Queen, Arthur picked up Curtis and together they worked to clear the rubble that was blocking the stairs leading to the surface. Arthur transferred mana to the exhausted Curtis who afterwards managed to use the first phase of his beast will. Thereafter, Curtis used his beast will ability, World Howl, to clear a path through the rubble. The Class ends up leaving after Curtis blasted the rocks blocking the exit. Nevertheless, Arthur stays behind to support Professor Glory who was having a hard time dealing with the mutated Widow Queen. On a side note, before Arthur went to help Professor Glory, he picked up Tessia who fainted at some because of her problematic beast will and entrusted her to Claire. Anyway, during Arthur and Professor Glory’s ensuing battle with the mutated Widow Queen, Arthur managed to temporarily stun it. Professor Glory used this chance to pick Arthur up and flee to the surface. Yet, the Widow Queen wasn’t willing to let them go and self-detonated. As a result, Arthur fell into a hole and did not make it out of there, while Professor Glory had no choice, but to reluctantly go back to the surface to take care of her remaining students. Fortunately, Arthur managed to survive the fall through the hole that leads deep underground. He later found a tunnel that was connected to three other dungeons where a half-dead Alea Triscan laid there, missing 3 limbs. As it turns out, Uto was the culprit who did this to her. Moreover, he also massacred her troops. After talking with the elven Lance about what happened and exchanging information, Arthur ends up burying her as she died shortly after his arrival there due to the fatal injuries caused by Uto. Following that, he went back to the surface with Sylvie’s help and heads back to the Helstia estate.

## Hell’s Jaw

Hell’s Jaw is an A class dungeon. Alea Triscan visited this dungeon at one point in the story. She and her personal troop were assigned by the council to investigate this dungeon after the council got reports of inconsistent sightings inside. The adventurers that had come back alive were ones who frequented the dungeon for training. The ones that made it back were barely alive and they all spoke about how the beasts residing within suddenly became stronger and fiercer. When Alea’s team reached the first floor of Hell’s Jaw, there was nothing off about it; the mana beasts were the same ones that were recorded. It was only when they reached the final floor where the master of the dungeon made it’s den that they realised that something was wrong. The Hades Serpent, which was an AA class mana beast, should’ve been something Alea Triscan could’ve beaten fairly easily. Nevertheless, the Hades Serpent, which was known for the blue fire spouting along its long spine, looked different. At first, they were confused because it didn’t look like it had any flames at all, but when they looked closer, the reason they couldn’t see the flames against the black walls of the cave was because the flames themselves were black. It looked like thick smoke flickering wildly along the spine of the hundred-foot serpent. That particular Hades Serpent also had a black horn jutting out of its forehead while it’s scales, which were recorded as being a matte grey color, were a sleek black. Alea Triscan lost five of her men to that Hades Serpent. The fight took several hours but she was able to kill it. When they tried to retrieve the beast core though, it wasn’t there. Although they were tempted to go back to the surface, they hadn’t managed to figure anything out, so they started searching for clues inside. One of her men used a spell and found that there was a hidden tunnel underneath a thin layer of earth. That tunnel was connected to three other dungeons. After crossing the tunnel, she found Uto waiting there. He not only massacred her troop, but also tortured her and left her in a near-death state. Then, Uto left after leaving her like this.

## References

1. ↑ The Beginning After The End Novel: Volume 2- Chapter 31
2. ↑ The Beginning After The End: Novel: Volume 2- Chapter 32
3. ↑ The Beginning After The End Webcomic: Season 3
4. ↑ The Beginning After The End Novel: Volume 3- Chapter 67
5. ↑ The Beginning After The End Novel: Volume 3- Chapter 65