Episode 96

Eye of the Beholder is a threat level 4 monster, it's a being of terror to be exact. In Fantasma a single of this monster able to flat an entire large city in a single night, Eye of Beholder was just a oversized single eye with a thousand tentacle  around it. The reason why this is monster so highly feared wasn't because it was physically strong, in fact it was quite weak, but it has a whole arsenal of Curses, status attributes ailment attacks and a whole bunch of magic spells. Certainly due to it's annoying abilities, it was ranked as a disaster level existence.

Still due to the difficulties and the threat of this monster, people rarely want to fight it, if they were discovered in a dungeon everyone would just evade it and the authority would just close the dungeon entirely. Thanks to that, there's basically unlimited supplies of it all over the central continent, this is one of a reason why Mina Suggest using the skins of Eye of The Beholder rather than Dragon skin, Eye of the Beholder skins/leather were very strong and very elastic, it's even comparable to a mid level dragons, also the skin that can be provided by a single Eye of the Beholder were quite large.

Rather than hunting a sentient size air carrier that mastered the sky, it's better to hunt an oversized eye that can only spew magic and have a lower defensive ability (it's just an Eye hovering on the air). Mina dared to suggest this because unlike other forces in Fantasma, Aeternum were using an advanced weapons, and a flash grenade combine with bullet rains, an oversize eye would stand no chance.

"There's a dungeon in the Desert of Nothing that have that thing..and that dungeon was already showing a sign of over flowing?…then choose that dungeon....let's go..I wonder if the special force can handle those monster..".

[They should be able to, but still the only reasons I agreed to Mina suggestions was because Aeternum have you…you can one shot the thing..in front of you that monster can be considered as jelly….If you do it right of course.., but just so you know Eye of The Beholder curses are really top notch..especially from the Elder of it's kind, just be careful and make sure to kill it at soon as you saw them..]. (T.A.S)

As someone who comes from a modern world naturally I know curses/voodoo was something bad, to me going up against something that I can't counter or touch is very annoying. Still I'm kinda excited to see what Eye of The Beholder looks like (i wonder if it just as gross as i imagined ). The Dungeon where I'm headed right now were called the Eye of Abyss, it's a Threat Level 6 Dungeon, 20 kilometer north from New City Solar Farm inside the Desert of Nothing. 200 Soldiers already stationed there of the 200, 50 are from the Special Forces, that amount of Special Forces alone describe how dangerous this dungeon are, from the moment it was found The Dungeon Explorations Division only managed to fully explored 5 floor out of the 15 floor of this dungeon.

Dungeon in Fantasma actually were not a cursed existence, in fact it was some kind of a natural border that protect the balance of existence, it was a part of the cycle of life, without it Fantasma will be overflowed by monsters, without it there  the inhabitants of this world wont be able to cope with the harsh reality of this world where it's heavily focused on strength.

Dungeon act like a natural prison that contain the most dangerous monsters in the world, that's why the behavior and strength of a dungeon monster differ from the surfaced monster, a single goblins from a dungeon can easily tear an adult man limb to limb with it's bare hand, whilst a single surface goblin will instead got smashed if they goes up against an adult man one by one. That's also the reason why everyone in Fantasma instead of looking at dungeon as a precious resource they decided to scorn it, they can't comprehend why such thing happened nor exist in the first place, that's also why it's become a common knowledge that a dungeon was a Hell spawn.

Aeternum was of course do not share the same views as Fantasma views, with me as a leader of course the views change. The Monster Tide/Stampede that come every 2 years was something that caused by a natural phenomenon known as 'Darkness Veil' (Kinda like an Aurora but instead of rainbow colored in the sky it was a black curtain flowing in the sky), it drove every monster crazy and become clouded with manhunt instinct, the devastation's of this phenomenon were actually 90% related to Dungeons.

In Actuality the Darkness Veil do not incite a Dungeon Break, it's only something that caused a non sentient being goes crazy. Dungeon Break was something that happened when dungeons were left alone for untouched for a set period of time. There's a way to know when a dungeon will break and the time frame of when the Break will happen, Every dungeon has a name and an entrance, all dungeon that existed has the same thing in common, 1. at the entrance a large sign board on top of the entrance that show the name of the dungeon, 2. a some kind of containment lock that seal the dungeon (Cave entrance, Large Door or Magical Membranes), 3. a Head size indestructible crystal slaps in the center in between the Signboard and the Entrance.

This 3 important thing was the indicator/alarms that show the status of the dungeon, there's 4 stage of a dungeon conditions, stage 1, where the crystal show no color, it means the dungeon is safe and contained. Stage 2 the crystal will emits a blue light, which means the dungeon contained a large amount of monster but still in a safe margin. Stage 3 The Crystal will emits an orange light whilst the entrance and the signboard will show a some crack, this means the dungeon was currently flooded with monsters and the dungeon is struggling to contain it. And Stage 4 The Crystal is broken and so is the entrance and the signboard, which means all hell break lose, the dungeon will emptied their content stage by stage and will only stopped when the populations of the monster inside reach the safe level.

A time frame of Dungeon Break was varied depends on their threat level, some may take 2 years to break, some may take up to 1000 years. Most of the low level dungeons required only 2 years to break, and unfortunately it's also at the same time when the Darkness Veil phenomenon happen (which happened every 2 years), when an already crazy monster get buffed with an even crazy buff, a crazy thing bound to happen. The secret of surviving a Monster Tide months was simply make sure the Dungeon around you does not break when the Darkness Veil happened, that way instead of facing an overpowered goblin with crazy buff, you only have to face a weak goblin with a mental deprived buff which you can defeat by simply digging a hole in the ground.

Of Course this fact were only known by me and Aeternum Higher ups. It was actually from the research by 'My Clan' @ the High Human Ancient civilizations, Since the Magic Eye Observer come to my control, the High Human Archives becomes mine, combine with T.A.S AI capability, Aeternum were the only country that possessed almost every knowledge on Fantasma. It's also one of the reasons my I establish the Dungeon Explorations Division that in charge of monitoring the Dungeons around Aeternum (At the same time raking Fortune from it).

As for the other nations in Fantasma, even if they knew this fact, it's probably hard for them to expect it nor act on it, because to them warring against each others and protecting their own interest were much more important. Beside to the people of power, they don't care and refuse to see the place that were called Hell spawn as a resource, instead they only saw it as cursed and lowly place that only a lowly people should delve in. They only will come when the dungeon break and imposed a tax upon entrance to that place, to them a dungeon break in a Monster Tide Months was natural, and when a Dungeon Break happen outside the Monster Tide months it somehow become a cursed events that shocked the world, there's always a saying that a demon spawn has ascended or stuff like that, of course every time that it's happened someone will always be burned on a stake. In a Medieval Fantasy world any normal modern man will be shocked by how can the people in this world be so oblivious by the obvious fact that literally in front of your eyes.

Also with the teaching of the church who insisted on persuading people to scorn the dungeon were also one of the reasons people tend to avoid look over it. The church always advised to it's follower to avoid such places though secretly they have been using the so called 'Crusade' to enter the dungeon, whilst it's their way to monopoly the rights to enter dungeon. of course that's also the reason why mercenary and adventurer were hated by the church, this fact also the reason why the Free Nation of Triangle Guild which the neutral states were never in contact with The church even though they were right beside them.