DMS Chapter 197

While they ate lunch that Flinx had purchased for everyone through the System Shopping Site—since none of his friends had any funds in their accounts—they also asked him to buy comfortable camping chairs so they could sit back and watch him annihilate dungeon monsters with his powerful spells.

Flinx purchased everything they requested and handed the items to them.

One downside of having their classes reset was that everything else had reset as well, including the storage capacity of their fourth-tab inventory. Each of them now had only one cubic meter of storage space.

Fortunately, it hardly mattered.

Once they returned to Earth, they would lose access to their systems again anyway. Even so, one cubic meter was more than enough to store snacks, drinks, and the camping chairs Flinx had provided.

As they ate, the conversation shifted to how long the dungeon raid might take.

"Since I cleared the first floor in about four hours, I think each floor will probably take four or five hours," Flinx estimated. "That comes to roughly a hundred and sixteen hours of actual fighting. Once we include breaks for meals and sleep, the entire raid should take around two weeks, give or take."

The discussion eventually drifted toward what everyone had done after returning to Earth.

Samuel then asked Flinx a question.

"If you didn't have the responsibility of staying here so the rest of us could keep our systems, would you want to go back to Earth?"

If Flinx also lost his transmigration system, none of them would ever be able to return to this magical world.

"I don't have anyone waiting for me on Earth," Flinx replied. "My parents are gone, and I'm not particularly close to my remaining relatives. My life there wasn't difficult, but it was ordinary... and honestly, it was boring. I don't have any desire to go back to living that kind of life."

Everyone understood how he felt.

In fact, Flinx believed that sooner or later every one of them would return to this world permanently, perhaps even bringing their families with them.

"Do you think anyone else from Earth would receive the transmigration system if we brought them here?" Flinx suddenly asked.

"Why wouldn't they?" Samuel replied.

"I'm wondering if the system we received was connected to the dimensional gate the Torbal Slavers used to kidnap us, rather than to a spell like Plane Shift."

"We can test that after we finish the dungeon," Mark suggested.

Everyone nodded.

The conversation then shifted to who they could use for the experiment.

"That part isn't difficult," Mark continued. "Most of us know someone who'd agree to help if we paid them enough. We wouldn't even have to explain anything beforehand. We could bring the person into an empty room, have Flinx waiting in another room, then use Plane Shift to bring them here without them realizing what happened. Once we confirm whether they receive the system, Flinx can immediately send them back."

Everyone agreed with the proposal.

Their lunch break ended up lasting nearly three hours because the conversation wandered through so many different topics.

None of them minded.

They had already told their families they would be away for roughly a month on a retreat with friends. Besides, they could still contact their families through the internet whenever necessary to reassure them that everything was fine.

After lunch, the group entered the second floor.

Like the first, it retained the cavern theme.

Flinx suspected that, much like the Dungeon of Mara, the environment would probably change every five floors or so, though that was merely speculation. The Dungeon of Mara was still the only dungeon he had ever explored, so his knowledge remained limited.

The monsters were largely the same as those on the previous floor: slimes, giant spiders, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, gnolls, trolls, giant bats, and numerous other cavern-dwelling creatures.

Flinx also expected another elite monster to appear at the end of the floor, just as before. Elite monsters were generally larger and significantly stronger versions of the ordinary monsters found throughout the dungeon.

The first enemies to experience one of Flinx's high-level spells were a pack of gnolls.

The hyena-like humanoids looked savage enough that Flinx was grateful he never had to fight them in close combat.

He cast the eighth-circle Conjuration spell Incendiary Cloud.

A massive cloud of smoke filled with white-hot embers engulfed the gnolls before rapidly spreading across the battlefield.

Within moments, every gnoll had been burned alive.

Flinx silently reflected that many of his strongest spells were horrifying.

Several were capable of inflicting unimaginably gruesome deaths.

Fortunately, dungeon monsters were not truly living creatures but mana constructs created by the dungeon itself.

Once every gnoll had been eliminated, the group continued onward.

The next spell Flinx tested was the eighth-circle Evocation spell Maddening Darkness.

He centered it upon a group of five driders.

The half-human, half-spider creatures were unsettling enough on their own, and Flinx thought the spell suited them perfectly.

As magical darkness spread across the battlefield, overwhelming psychic energy assaulted the monsters until every one of them collapsed.

When the darkness finally faded, everyone saw blood flowing from the driders' eyes, noses, ears, and mouths. Their twisted faces remained frozen in expressions of unbearable agony.

After the group caught up, Samuel shook his head in amazement.

"A wizard's spells are truly incredible," he said. "Once I return to this world permanently, I'm changing my class to Wizard."

Mark laughed.

"He's still casting everything alphabetically."

Everyone immediately understood what he meant.

Since they all had access to the same spell database Flinx had used to purchase his spells—a database modeled after the famous fantasy role-playing game upon which their transmigration system seemed to be loosely based—they already knew which spell would come next.

The following enemies were another enormous swarm of vampire bats.

Most adventurers would have struggled against such a large number of fast-moving flying creatures.

Flinx did not.

Many of his strongest spells affected enormous areas, making swarms particularly easy for him to eliminate.

This time, he chose the eighth-circle Evocation spell Sunburst.

Before casting it, however, he shouted a warning.

"Close your eyes!"

A brilliant sphere of radiant light erupted across the cavern, blinding everything nearby while inflicting devastating radiant damage.

As expected, not a single vampire bat survived.

Flinx was not concerned even if a few had somehow lived through the spell.

The Wind Elementals would have finished off any survivors almost instantly.

So far, every monster struck by one of his eighth- or ninth-circle spells had died immediately.

Normally, Flinx never announced the names of his spells.

He did so only when there was a possibility that they might affect his companions, as was the case with Sunburst.

Even then, two of them failed to shut their eyes in time and were temporarily blinded.

Although the blindness would eventually wear off on its own, Flinx simply cast the Cleric spell Heal on both of them.

Within moments, their vision returned, and the party continued onward.

Flinx found it somewhat disappointing that he had not been able to test some of his strongest single-target spells, particularly the various Power Word spells.

After some thought, he decided he would save those for the elite monsters waiting at the end of each dungeon floor.