Risen World

Chapter 381: A Unique Reward that Inspires some Interesting Ideas

The boss creature let out its last scream as its head pointed upward towards the ceiling and all sorts of spores poured out of its mouth. It had lost the strength to continue holding off Titus as the gorilla lifted its leg up and tossed it over. Instead of thrashing around or reacting violently, the fungal body of the boss started to break apart and crumble right in front of everyone's eyes. Joshua and Amy backed up a bit so none of the spores from the deteriorating body could reach them. Even Titus followed them since he seemed tired from fending off the spores of the boss creature for such a long time.

It took a while for the giant mass of plant and fungus to break apart. The last thing to disintegrate was the large flower that made up the head of the creature as it withered and fell apart. It was at that moment that Joshua finally felt a large surge of experience flood his body. He was getting close to another level up so that made clearing the dungeon more than worth it in his eyes. He was certain that the lower level members of their group had at least gained three or so levels from this dungeon expedition which was much more than they would have gotten from doing the town dungeon over and over for the same period of time.

When all of the spores and dust started to swirl around like a force was manipulating them Joshua wasn't quite sure if there was something else they would have to deal with or not. He could still sense corruption swirling in the mass of spores in front of them, but it didn't seem to be in control like it had been when they fought the boss. Even so the room around them hadn't changed with corrupted fungus spread out all around them, so Joshua wasn't exactly sure how they were supposed to take care of the corruption inside the dungeon once and for all. He just had to wait and see what the dungeon was going to throw at them next like everyone else in the group.

It took a minute or so before Joshua could see a change in the pattern of swirling dust and spores that grabbed his attention. By this time the rest of his guild members had made their way over with Brook still holding up the large bubble around them that kept the strong smell of their surroundings from affecting them. Joshua didn't take his eyes away from what was happening in front of him as he could see the swirling spores move towards the center of the twister as if they were being sucked in by something. It didn't just suck in the spores though, it also absorbed every last bit of the remains of the boss that were in the surroundings.

It didn't take long before everything around the twister had been sucked allowing Joshua to get a clear view at what was in the center of the twister. Floating in the air in a surprisingly calm fashion was a large orb that was similar to the ones Joshua had seen at the four lakes they had come across while searching the dungeon. This orb had red tendrils all over it and seemed to have a dangerous feel to it when Joshua examined it with his aura sense. Though when he pushed his aura deeper into the sphere he felt a natural feeling that seemed far gentler and touched by nature. It was while Joshua was sensing the orb out that a message appeared in the air before them. It was a system message that they had all grown used to seeing after clearing a new dungeon so Joshua gave it a quick glance over to see if it would explain what was going on at the moment.

[Congratulations on clearing this dungeon. This dungeon was designed to be to tiring for solo explorers to handle on their own and to chaotic for large groups to try to push through quickly in hopes of an easy clear. As a onetime dungeon the challenge had to be somewhat unique. However since you have cleared this unique dungeon you shall be granted a special reward.]

The simple words of special reward were more than enough to get everyone in the group excited. It was clear that the dungeon had come to an end and whatever the message was about to tell them to do to gain their unique reward would bring everything to a close. Joshua turned his attention back to the message to see if he could find out how that was going to happen.

[As a reward for clearing this dungeon you shall be able to own the entire dungeon itself. Though after claiming it as a dungeon it will no longer be considered a dungeon. All you have to do is touch the core laid out before you and everything shall be settled. Let the rest be a surprise!]

Joshua was annoyed by the fact that the system was coming off as a little cheeky with the way it was explaining things. If they were going to be able to own the dungeon entirely then that meant that other groups wouldn't be able to enter the area like with normal dungeons that were cleared. The first people to clear a normal dungeon out in the wild would just get experience boost whenever they cleared the place again in the future. It made it more than worthwhile to keep clearing the place for a time, but it didn't mean they owned the dungeon. Other explorers could come and go as they liked they just wouldn't have the same experience boost as the group or guild that cleared the dungeon in the first place.

From the wording of the message laid out before them it was clear that they would own this dungeon in a more all-encompassing manner than with other dungeons, but what benefit would that give them? This dungeon didn't have beast that Lilly could tame and dealing with corrupted plants would get old once they found a better dungeon to move on to that actually had some treasure chest inside of it. "Should we go ahead and touch the core to find out what the system's hiding from us?" Amy asked still excited to see what would happen next.

"Might as well, none of the rewards we've gotten so far with Joshua around have let us down up to this point." Henry said with a shrug before looking towards Joshua. Joshua simply nodded in return before walking up to the core and stretching his hand out towards it. He made sure to keep his body coated in aura just in case something went wrong. The moment Joshua's hand touched the core it started to shine brightly as the corrupted look it had before started to flake off of it. A bright green color seemed to encompass the entire core as it pulsed with energy that seemed to only build up more and more.

Joshua stepped back when he saw this, but the core didn't stop its light show there. With one last pulse the energy surrounding the core shot outward in a large wave that spread out through the entire room and beyond. More and more waves of energy kept spreading out with the core being the source of everything. At first the green light it was creating was so bright that it was hard to see even while covering their eyes, but it eventually calmed down enough to where they could look around their surroundings and see what was going on.

The energy seemed to be purifying all of the corruption in the room. At first it made all of the tendrils that were spread out all over the different fungi in the room disperse. Then the fungi started to break down as well and were pushed away giving the room a much cleaner look. By the third pulse of green energy there wasn't a single fungus left inside of the room and considering the fact that the waves of energy seemed to go much further than the range of the room itself it was possible all of the fungus inside of the giant sphere had been cleansed away. Now there was only rocks and dirt left behind, but that soon changed.

The next waves of energy that emitted from the core spread out in an even faster pace with several more following right behind it. These waves seemed to be causing grass to grow along the ground and vines to grow along the walls several flowers following close behind. The stench in the air had been completely cleared out and the smell of a garden replaced it. The core continued to pulse out for a few more minutes before it calmed down and went silent. The hole in the ceiling where the light had poured into the room from before now had a torrent of water flow in and splash directly over where the core was. This water quickly started forming a large pond in the center of the room.

The new feeling Joshua gained from sensing the room out was amazing. The aura of nature was so strong in the place that it felt like everything around him was bursting with life. From the excited look Joshua could see on Lilly's three large beast companions he could assume that they were also getting the same feeling. "This is amazing. It's as if the forest has suddenly gained several times the vitality it had before. The corruption must have had a fairly negative effect on all of the plants in the dungeon up to this point." Joshua said with a smile. Everyone else seemed to be nodding their head in agreement as even they could tell that the plants seemed more alive than when the corruptions was spread around the area. Only Amy was acting a bit weird as she scrunched up her nose and walked over to the rest of the group.

"The plants are not only filled with more aura, but if you were to plant anything in this area it would grow at ten times their normal rate." Titus said with a broad grin. "In fact anything that grows anywhere inside of the sphere will have at least a five times normal growth rate."

"I thought this was the only room inside of the sphere of the dungeon." Henry said. "Well I guess there were the cavern like areas, but how are we supposed to get to them." It was after Henry had brought this up that the core came floating out of the waterfall just in front of the group and projected a screen for them all to look through. At the top of the screen it said Garden system and it had a three dimensional map of the entire dungeon. There was also a portal system that would allow them to select a destination within the dungeon to be transported to. There was a ton of other information that dealt with planting plants and regulating the care of any plants within the dungeon that Joshua was certain they'd have to look into, but for now Joshua wanted to get a good look at the changes in the dungeon.

They selected a portion of the map to travel to and a portal opened up for them to go through. Lilly's beast companions all went back into her soul realm as they traveled through the portal. When they exited they were in one of the large caverns near the surface of the giant sphere in the center of the dungeon. They were able to look outside the cavern and down the waterfall to see the forest below them. From what Joshua could tell there was no more corruption around and the trees and other plants all seemed to be flourishing with life similar to everything inside of the sphere. It wasn't to the same degree, but it was still a huge improvement.

While Joshua was observing the dungeon like everyone else Amy walked up behind him and shoved him causing him to fall into the lake that created the waterfall at the edge of the cavern. He wasn't in any danger of being pulled away, but he was soaked wet as he glared back up at his little sister. "What was that for?" Joshua asked as he shook his hair to get it out of his face.

"You smell like crap Josh. That's what you get for diving head first into the mouth of something that literally spits out corrupted air." Amy said before pulling something out of her inventory and tossing it to Joshua. It was a bar of soap which caused everyone else to laugh at his predicament.