Danmachi- Hell’s Forge

Moss huge

The waters of that bit of dungeon scape were one of the main ingredients for high tier elixirs so even with the difficulty of the fight the prize was well worth it. Though at the moment only the upper ranked familias or the ridiculously rich can obtain the elixirs due to this rarity. Most discoveries in the dungeon however weren't nearly so valuable so while I absolutely was going to eventually explore those tunnels, most people wouldn't risk it. Not that there was anything wrong with that since it's nice to know more or less what to expect in the dungeon.-

I didn't stay long peering over the edge of this tunnel though and headed back down it's length till I found the way down to the twenty sixth floor. To my surprise I came across an injured elf limping up from from a tunnel with these strange vines growing out of him and a missing right arm.

"B-beware t-the seeds." he said with ragged breath as I caught him before he fell over unconscious from blood loss.

"Hell's forge!" I said fully activating my technique to see what the fuck was going on.

What I learned was not fun at all as his wounds had foreign plant seeds in them that were growing by drinking his blood and mana. This meant they were constantly draining away his strength over time in an insidious manner. I used my technique to pop out these seeds while closing up his wounds so he didn't bleed to death just in time for my senses to pick up on the approach of something large and slow. I stood over the elf on guard against whatever it was with my weapon in my hand seriously.-

From the shadows of a tunnel a large leafy creature resembling swamp thing but with more foliage walked out. It was easily seven feet tall and walked on it's back legs like a person but I knew those thick arms of it's doubled as legs in a pinch since I recognized the species of this variant monster, a moss huge. Holes opened up on the beast as it roared at me and close to a dozen seeds shot through the air at me like bullets. The speed and impact of them told me that this variant was easily level five but on the low end at most as the seeds broke through my armor and took root in my body, or rather tried to.-

I casually rendered the seeds inert with my technique before pushing them out of my body as the monster watched with an eerie amount of intelligence. It wasn't a Xenos as it lacked a soul but it was fairly obvious that the thing was of the clever variety of variant much like the lizardman from before. As if to prove my point the thing retreated silently into the shadows of the tunnel it came from as though luring me to chase it. 

I snorted at that "You'll have to do better than that if you want to trick me." I said derisively.

Most adventurers would get cocky after neutralizing the attack and see the monster retreating as it being afraid and chase it. I on the other hand recognized the trap for what it was and had no intention of stepping into it, not when it was a level five monster that set it. I might be a hard counter to that parasitic seed attack but no monster at that strength was weak and a clever variant was definitely not an exception.-

In addition the elf who was the monsters previous victim was still sitting on the ground behind me in a vulnerable state and couldn't be left behind like this to chase after the thing. Seeing the monster leave I took out some of the hide I collected previously and refined it into rope that I used to strap the elf onto my back firmly before heading for the stairs going up. I didn't need to get him to Orario but Rivira instead since the town would be able to keep him safe till he could get a ride topside.-

With the guy secured to my back firmly I had my hands free to kill the monsters that showed up after smelling the blood on him. I didn't bother holding back at all and left a vast swath of frozen terrain as I moved through the tunnels whenever I got attacked. It was a bit of a trail of breadcrumbs that the variant could follow but I didn't care all that much. If it wanted to take advantage of the fact I had a guy literally weighing me down I wouldn't mind introducing it to the business end of my weapon, which is to say the whole thing.-

Clearly however the monster wasn't willing to go for a direct confrontation as even as I stepped foot onto the twenty fourth floor it hadn't tried anything yet. Even better now that I wasn't in an area with lots of water I could use my fire again without worrying about blowing up the fucking floors accidentally. As I went through the great tree labyrinth I got attacked a few times by monsters that smelt the blood on the guy on my back but my flames reduced them to ash without a fuss.-

After a few hours of travel I finally stepped into the dungeon town of Rivira and got flagged down by the guys guarding it.

"What happened?" one of the guards asked seriously.

"Ran into this guy on the twenty sixth floor, he was attacked by a variant moss huge, it was one of the clever ones with a troublesome ability. Some kind of parasitic seeds that drain your blood and mana over time after getting shot into you. Thing tried it with me before retreating, need to set up a bounty on it to warn folks." I explained seriously.

The guards both grimaced at that "We'll need to see Bors then, he's in charge here and will know what to do." one of them said with a sigh.

"He's not gonna be happy getting bothered at this time but should throw too much of a fit." the other said with a helpless look.

"Where can I go to get this guy taken care of?" I asked and they pointed me in the direction of the "hospital inn" that puts up injured adventurers should they need it.