Chapter 171: The Magical Number 9.

Proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Dreadflame Dragon Lv. 3] [Silent Casting Lv. 10] [Long-Range Spell Enhancement Lv. 3] [Spear Technique Lv. 6] [Spear Mastery Lv. 2] [Terrain Maneuvering Lv. 6] [Draconic Aura Lv. 2] [Dismantle Lv. 8] gained

Max level of Jobs [Taunter], [Freelancer], [Earth Mage], [Wind Mage], [Scale-Dust User] has been reached

Individual [Sunfang Dragonewt, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor] has switched her Main Job to [Crimson-Scaled Dreadgiver]

Main Job benefits have been updated due to Job change

Crimson-Scaled Dreadgiver Level: 0/30

Job Skill gained: [Scale-Dust Size Increase], [Fire Abnormality Effect: Dread]

Jeez, level 30… If leveling it up is going to be as hard as [Scale-Dust User] was, or even harder, then this will take a while. Luckily, we are gonna be gone for a while.

Before leaving for the dungeon, our party decided to stop by the hunter’s guild to change our Main Jobs since we’re about to embark for an extended time without access to a [Crystal of the Divine System]. However, as our dungeon trip wasn’t meant for training, taking a Main Job that provided Job skills or abilities would be more beneficial.

Job: Crimson-Scaled Dreadgiver

Requirements: [Dreadflame Dragon Lv. 3], [Scale-Dust User] Job Lv. 15, 10000 Mana, 2000 Strength, 3000 Intelligence, 3000 Stamina

Acquirement Benefits: Mana Increase, Strength increase, Intelligence increase, Wisdom Increase, Agility Increase, Stamina increase, [Dreadflame Dragon] proficiency

Main Job Benefits: [Scale-Dust Size Increase], [Fire Abnormality Effect: Dread]

Job: Shadow Warrior

Requirements: [Shadow Armament Lv. 5], [Shadow Rogue] Job Lv. 15, [Dark Magic Lv. 10], [Silence Lv. 1], [Odorless Lv. 1], 2000 Mana, 1500 Strength, 3500 Agility, 3500 Stamina

Acquirement Benefits: Mana Increase, Strength increase, Agility Increase, Stamina increase, [Shadow Armament] proficiency

Main Job Benefits: [Shadow Dash Eruption], [Dusk Bombardment], [Penumbral Armament]

Job: Fae Whisperer

Requirements: Able to see/commune with lesser faefolk, 1500 Mana

Acquirement Benefits: Mana Increase, Intelligence Increase, Agility Increase, [Fae Talk] proficiency

In our one week of hardcore training, our party managed to gain quite a lot of levels for Ellaine and our Jobs. Unfortunately, due to the three Jobs per week rule set by the System, the four of us only changed to six Jobs, where I managed to finish the level 15 Job [Scale-Dust User] just yesterday. Seeing as it was one of the Jobs created from my racial skills, it just seemed natural for me to acquire and level [Scale-Dust User] once I had the chance. After all, it increased the proficiency of [Dreadflame Dragon], one of the four skills I had to bring to level 10 in order to be able to evolve to Rank A.

[Crimson-Scaled Dreadgiver] was apparently the next step in this Job line, seeing as it had “[Scale-Dust User] Job Lv. 15” in its requirements. Aside from having a maximum level of 30, it was pretty hard to level up, seeing as how slaying a single Rank E wasn’t enough to bring [Scale-Dust User] up to level one.

Saori had the same idea as I did. [Shadow Warrior] was the 30 level version of [Shadow Rogue], created through the unique skill [Shadow Armament]. Aside from giving her two Job abilities in [Shadow Dash Eruption] — which makes her [Shadow Dash] deal damage upon exiting her shadow — and [Dark Bombardment] — a dark elemental version of [Petal Flames] that shoots out small bombs — it also gave her [Penumbral Armament], a Job skill that gives her [Shadow Armament] more defensive prowess outside of being a dark resistance increaser.

Tasianna, on the other hand, took a Job which was less focused on combative abilities, but more on utility. [Fae Whisperer] was the first Job in the Faemancer line, something we’ve already seen Silva the wind elf have. It only had a maximum of ten levels — she’ll be done with the Job quickly — but it allowed Tasianna to do something nobody else in our party could: Speak with lesser faefolk.

As a fairy, Tasianna was able to see all kinds of fae, but she wasn’t able to communicate with lesser fae and elementals, similar to how a human couldn’t speak with apes and monkeys without teaching them sign language. My [Mana Eyes] allowed me to see the silhouettes of small mana balls, which Tasianna confirmed as spirits, but I couldn’t actually see them, making me ineligible for [Fae Whisperer].

After what happened with Kiiro and the onnikai, Tasianna came to the realization that fairies weren’t the only faefolk suffering in the world outside their havens. Sure, she knew this was the case due to her education, but before she met the onnikais, that realization wasn’t as vivid as it was now. Fae like Kiiro could be everywhere, needing help, but there wouldn’t always be a faemancer like Silva there to solve these problems. Tasianna, however, could do her part to help as Aurora traveled.

She wasn’t planning to become an elementalist like Silva, she just wanted to be able to speak with all the different kinds of faefolk. Learn if they had any troubles. While her altruistic motivation was praiseworthy, being a Faemancer also helped our party as it allows her to gather information through them.

“The average fairy rarely acts seriously, and I’m not sure if that’s the case for lesser fae, too. Hopefully not,” Tasianna mentioned after switching Jobs. She seemed to have mostly gotten over her prejudices against humans, but it seems she’s still a big critic of her own race.

Lastly, Ellaine was the one who gained the most levels from our dungeon trips, rising up a whole 14 levels from 30 to 44. That was 6350 SP earned! With her 800 spare SP, that amounted to quite a stockpile of points… until she used them all up on skill upgrades. You know, when I heard about the whole Job system, I thought using my SP to level up skills was a waste until I realized how hard it really was.

Higher tiers of Jobs required more experience to level up and common Jobs wouldn’t give something universally useful like [Poison Resistance] or [Battle Mind]. We can talk all about being patient and playing the long game all we like, but stuff like the onnikais or the grimgarian battalion appearing during our journeys make that plan less appealing. I’m not saying we should spend all our SP, leaving nothing behind as a failsafe, but some skills were worth spending on.

“Uhm, I know you are aware of the dangers beneath floor 10, but please be very prudent. Skill and strength cannot always get you out of all situations,” Cleo, a hunter’s guild receptionist, warned us before handing us multiple maps for the various floors beneath the 9th. “May the Goddess of the Hunt guide you to your prey. Good fortune!”

We then left the hunter’s guild, poised for our trip into the dungeon. Since we had already made the party, Grimnir was already with us this whole time, brooding without saying anything to us. Of course, we hid the sensitive information from him using our specially-ordered IDs, which also included the information shown in the party screen. He couldn’t see my [Humanized (Moderate)] status, in other words.

As Grimnir was silently following us, we decided there wasn’t a need to talk until we entered the dungeon. Grimnir seemed prepared, after all.

His armor wasn’t decorated in any sparkling gold or silver like a noble knight, preferring to look intimidating with thick, scarred eoriant plates and pauldrons while a long plated chainmail hauberk flowed down to his ankles like a dress. Massive gauntlets hid his large hands and his metal boots made his every step quake the earth like a behemoth. His orange hair and face were protected by a stoic-looking helmet, leaving only his beard “undefended.” Unlike his unkempt appearance from before, his current look made him feel like an ancient tank, which was far more impressive than how I appeared with my [Panzer] spell.

On his back was a large backpack and his weapon. When I asked him what was inside the former, he mentioned his blacksmith kit and a few valuables, since he couldn’t just leave them in his wagon while he was gone. The latter, on the other hand, was far more interesting.

At a first glance, it looked like a polearm-like warhammer — a long, moderately-thin metal handle with a large, thick hammerhead. Looking closer, however, you could see a compartment and other mechanical pieces attached to his weapon, all leading up to the top which had a crevasse dividing the hammer into two heads. In that space, an ornamented cylinder sat. All in all, his hammer looked more steampunk, without the steam, unlike the medieval or magical weapons I’ve seen so far.

The first four floors of the dungeon were, as always, far too easy for our group, since they were made for beginners. Usually, Saori would lead the party since she was our best scout, but Grimnir insisted he should do it, as “armored frontliners are meant to stand in front of everybody.” From an adventurer’s perspective, he was the one with the most experience, and it’s not like he was wrong. Our party was just that weird.

“This is the most normal formation this party has ever used,” Ellaine mumbled, which I acknowledged.

While it wasn’t abnormal for Saori to lead our party, since she is our best tracker and enemy detector, me being our party’s “tank” and frontline was weird. I was mostly a mage with some melee capabilities, but I always guarded the backline against ambushes and was the first one to jump in front of everybody to protect them despite having no “armor” per se.

Ellaine was wearing a chainmail hauberk with a gambeson underneath it while being adept with a sword, however, she was being guarded by Tasianna and me, two mages. Then again, if you looked at our party more strictly under an RPG lens, weren’t we just one dedicated mage, two mages with close-combat options, and a rogue with magic abilities? If we hadn’t been so abnormal, our party would have been wiped in the first session.

Anyway, after passing through the labyrinth-like cavern from floor four, we entered floor five. A significant change in scenery, we went from a cavernous environment back to a forest setting; yet, it was incomparable to the forests we had been to before. The Belzac forest was a grouping of different wood biomes, which included a boreal forest, a temperate woodland, a swamp, and a tropical jungle just to name a few. I guess it wouldn’t be weird, seeing as how big the Belzac forest was, but there was nothing magical about the forest beyond its high Rank. All the trees and plants looked just like you’d expect them to.

Floors five to floor nine, on the other hand, were exactly what you would expect from a fantastical forest. Bright shining dandelions grew around the small lakes and ponds of this place, shining bright colors from an assortment of colors as the wind dragged their pollen through the air, illuminating our surroundings. Despite not being classified as a monster or “treant,” the trees in this area could move independently without a floral magician like Cernust in the area, making me believe floors five to nine were all part of a single organism of sorts.

The monsters in this area fit the theme of the place, with giant colorful bugs flying around, raptor-type dinosaurs using the trees to prowl for prey, and sentient mushroom monsters. All of this happened as the “sky” of these floors was completely shrouded in darkness, never showing a hint of the sun while we were training on floor eight. Unfortunately.

“Fancily bright, sharp-ear forests give me a headache whenever I enter one. Feel at home, Tasianna?” Grimnir grumbled the moment we arrived here.

Tasianna shrugged as she replied, “Well, it beats brown rocks with some lava and gemstones here and there. This forest and Saelariel feel like they’re living and breathing, Sir Dwarf.”

“Hmph. It is precisely the lack of color underground that makes you appreciate the rare shining gems and ores you uncover. It is for this reason that we tazongs consider all our creations as art, worthy to dedicate all of our energy into.”

It was just idle banter; nobody actually got insulted by it. Tasianna was a fairy in the first place, and, unlike in some fantasy stories, the dwarves and elves in Peolynca have a friendly relationship that could be seen as an amicable rivalry.

“Hestia, if what those adventurers mentioned is correct, then I can probably take care of everything until we reach floor 15. Conserve your core’s energy until then,” Saori patted me on the shoulders as Grimnir moved forwards with the map we brought from the guild, leading our party through the shortest path towards the next floor’s staircase.

“Got it. This will be a long trip,” I nodded.

We probably won’t return to the surface unless in an emergency, which meant I wouldn’t be able to refill my solar core during the entirety of this trip, unless the dungeon somehow produced solar rays my core would accept. Without the sun, my regeneration and endurance would take a hit, forcing me to be more prudent with how I used my solar core’s energy.

Thankfully, I had my party to take care of me, meaning I could opt out of most confrontations. Saori had just evolved, Tasianna, with her catalyst, was a force full of potential, and Ellaine recently got access to [Storm Magic Lv. 1] and [Terra Magic Lv. 1]. Not to mention, Grimnir should be able to take my spot as the party’s “tank” temporarily.

While it isn’t necessary, I do not want to seem like dead weight.

[Music Resonation (Moderate)][Various Spell Buffs] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

“Hmm?” Grimnir turned to me with a question look after I began producing music with [Aerokinesis] to share my buffs.

“I spread my buffs not with [Synergist’s Oath], but with my own unique skill, which involves music. I thought it would be better to inform you about it now instead of later on,” I explained how my [Idol] skill worked.

Grimnir nodded in approval, remembering he saw the skill when he looked at my ID. “Ahhh, so that’s what it does. It’s got a weird name but if you can spread your buffs faster and more efficiently, then I have nothing to say but ‘impressive.’ So, as long as this [Music Resonation] buff is in my profile, I’ll reap the benefits of all your buffs? Good to know, thanks.”

“Anyways, let’s keep mov-” Grimnir was about to turn around when Saori raised her arm up and stated “Stop” before diving into her shadow. Moments later, a black explosion detonated from behind a bush, sending three raptors flying. Saori emerged behind them and promptly sliced their heads off with her daggers.

Venoraptor

A raptor with venom coated front claws, used against larger foes to weaken them before delivering the finishing blow with its sickle claw on its feet. Raptors rarely hunt alone, preferring to hunt in a pack of siblings or with a partner. Rank E

“… Not bad, wolfkin. You’re supposedly hunter rank D too, like Hestia, right? By Crustacia, do some more Quests, that’s the biggest lie I’ve heard recently. Here.” And Grimnir returned Saori the map, conceding the front position to her. With Saori back at the helm, we began our way through the next couple of floors.

I guess we might as well get some wood to repair the ogre’s axe. Not like we need to use Cernust’s antler just yet.

*******************************************************

Dungeons.

A monster-infested area born after the arrival of the Origin Gods to Peolynca, created by the Divine System to enclose a huge amount of mana into a separate area to prevent an excessive amount of monster spawning. This mana is then crystallized into a dungeon core, the “heart” of a dungeon, and the one responsible for the dungeon’s control and longevity.

Remove or destroy the core, and the dungeon will cease to exist, disposed of by the Divine System as its original purpose was now gone. Despite rumors spread by the uneducated, a dungeon isn’t a physical place in the world of Peolynca, but rather it is a separate dimension created through space-time magic and maintained by the Divine System, a separate creation of the Origin Gods.

This was the reason why the ecosystems inside a dungeon, aptly called floors as each area is connected through stairs or holes, could be so diverse compared to its surface. Bountiful forests could flourish inside a dungeon located in the desert, or a perilous magma chamber inside the lands of green, fertile land.

Regardless of what is contained in these dungeons, one thing is for sure: there are monsters and treasures. While dungeon cores aren’t completely sentient, they seemed to be driven by an instinct to survive and grow like a beast, probably from the Divine System’s command. While it was possible for mana to enter its confines through its door like air, this method was nowhere enough to satisfy its drive to expand the number of floors inside it.

For this reason, monsters, and later treasures, were being born by expending the dungeon core’s stored mana. Like a piece of bait, surface beasts would be lured into these areas by the allure of prey. Some survived and learned from this new hunting ground, while others perished, becoming the fertilizer keeping a dungeon alive and strong.

A relatively endless supply of monster materials ready to be gained and harvested, it was to nobody’s surprise that even humanoids were attracted by this phenomenon. With dungeon delvers lured in, people interested in buying these materials off these hunters’ hands, whether it was a blacksmith or a simple chef, would undoubtedly follow them to the dungeon. This was how dungeon settlements were born.

That was how Cedaraille was initially formed during the first years of the Leosfalt Kingdom, the predecessor of Artorias. Despite possessing land perfect for agriculture, the wealth produced by a dungeon would always continue attracting new adventurers and merchants to visit the Greenveil Duchy.

While some adventurers would feast well from a successful day of work, fortune’s mercy cannot touch all.

“Quick! Throw the damn firebomb!”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen, dammit!”

“Fuck! Why are there water slimes today of all days?!”

Today, the dungeon will dine.

“Arghgrhghr!!!”

“No! No! Noooooo!”

“Get a grip, you idiot! Do you want to fucking die?!”

Multiple groups of adventurers, all around E and D rank in strength, were currently running away from a horde of mushroom monsters and water slimes, all led by a single treant-type creature.

Knopbri

A tailed beast with moss and mushrooms growing from its back. Instead of tracking prey through sight, these monsters have adapted to life in darkness by releasing mushroom spores which, once attached to flesh, produce a potent smell only knopbri can smell. While the spores themselves aren’t dangerous in any way, the beasts’ massive jaws and strong tails can deal with most prey around their size. Rank E

River Slime

A bluish slime with a high resistance towards water elemental attack. They mostly live on the edge of a river, consuming algae or moss to sustain themselves. Mostly harmless, they do possess the ability to shoot out a weak concentrated beam of water from their cores. Rank F

Barkwraith Protector

A tree made sapient by being infused with a dying spriggan in soil with high mana; however, instead of retaining its sense of self, a barkwraith is created if the sapient tree becomes feral, becoming a monster through its spawning. Now truly a monster, these aggressive treants will attack any invader foolish enough to enter its forest. This variant possesses an especially durable body. Rank D

Whether it was for greed or fame, adventurers are drawn to challenges with a sense of adventure. The existence of this barkwraith was a known fact by the hunter’s guild, seeing as they are a product of the dungeon’s ability to mimic the monster spawning process, which could recreate any creature the Divine System categorized as a monster.

Designated as a “boss monster” of floor nine, Quests were often issued to hunt these barkwraiths down for their bodies. To lower the risk of death, hunters who accept these Quests would cooperate with other parties. Thankfully, the reward was lucrative enough even for three parties of E or D rank adventurers.

Unfortunately, today was not a casualty-free day.

“We need to run now!”

Knopbries, which were attracted to the large grouping of adventurers, ambushed the three adventurer parties while these parties were preparing to fight the barkwraith. In this chaos, the barkwraith was naturally lured in by the noise of fighting and began using its extendable roots to support the knopbries, resulting in the adventurers relying on firebombs to escape with their lives.

It was just unfortunate that this knopbri group was relaxing at a nearby river, being cleaned by moss-loving river slimes. Without letting these slimes down, the knopbries rushed towards the adventurers with the slimes on their backs, who began shooting down firebombs out of their fear of fire.

It was a recipe for disaster and multiple young adventurers have lost their lives in this seemingly easy task. Either mauled to death by the knopbries or having their organs pierced by the treant.

“Arrghrhhh! Shit, my leg!”

“Naden!”

A young commoner by the name of Naden was caught in the vines of the barkwraith, shrieking like a banshee at the sight of blood streaming from his leg, drenching the grass red. The barkwraith pulled its arm back, dragging Nadan further away from his party and toward the fearsome jaws of the knopbries.

“Arrghhh! Power Slash! No! No! No! Power Slash! No! No! Nooo!!! Power Slash!!!” the young adventurer screamed with tears falling from his eyes, desperately hacking on the barkwraith’s wooden fingers with his sword, however, any hacked piece would quickly grow back without fire to suppress the monster’s regeneration.

Abi! Hailey! Mother! Father! I will make it back! the young man’s mind shouted in denial as the gaping jaws of a knopbries inched closer and closer to his face. He could neither hear the shouts of his friends nor the maniacal laughter of the barkwraith. To him, the world became silent.

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Until the roar of thunder appeared.

“KNAKKkkkriiiiiii...”

“Huh?”

Wha-What?! entered Nadan’s mind, unable to understand why the dwarf-sized knopbri suddenly disappeared from his eyes. As he turned his head to the side, the moss-covered mushroom monster was twitching uncontrollable on the grassy ground while a black stream was flowing through its body like electricity.

“Bladdarg! Come at me ya damn mushroom-lovers, think ya can’t handle somebody your own size?! Huh?!” The deep voice of a dwarven warrior echoed through the forest, sending a chill down the knopbries as they collectively turned their head towards their new adversaries. However, the one closest to him couldn’t react fast enough, being slugged by the dwarf’s warhammer like a baseball.

“Stop dreaming, watch out!” a young woman’s voice warned one of Naden’s party members, who was nearly pounced on by a hidden knopbrie. Thanks to the warning, the adventurer was able to react and dodge the monster’s jaw. Before the monster could turn around and continue its attack, a teenage girl suddenly appeared from behind a tree, being flown into battle by a strong wind.

Holding a sword in one hand while an emerald ring glowed brightly on the other, the girl swooped into the battle and slashed the knopbrie’s arm. Jumping over the monster’s back, the girl landed on the ground before casting another [Wind Blast] to speed up her sword swing, helping her decapitate the monster with finesse.

Without giving the shocked adventurer another second of her time, the brown ring on her hand glowed and a wall appeared from the ground, sending her towards the next monster to slay. Mid-flight, a few river slimes suddenly shot out a few jets of water towards the girl. However, before they hit, daggers of ice descended down from the sky, blocking not only the water beam but also destroying the slimes’ cores before freezing them. The dagger rain did not stop, eliminating the remaining river slimes.

With a dwarven warrior and human girl slaughtering the horde of monsters, the adventurers regained their morale, charging back to support their lifesavers. Nadan’s party members, now free to help him, quickly burned the root holding him and dragged him away from the fighting.

As the knopbries were disoriented by the sounds of their fallen kind, the head of a wolfkin woman suddenly appeared from the shadow of one of them, her eyes glowing as a bright red mist flowed from them. Raising her shadow-covered arm, she slammed it on the ground before multiple black tendrils erupted, catching all knopbries and dragging them towards her.

“Hey! Bladdarg, that was mine!” the dwarf shouted as he missed his swing due to the wolfkin’s actions, grumbling at what he saw happened next.

After pulling herself out of the shadow, the wolfkin woman’s hand suddenly was covered in black lightning. She looked at the knopbries, wrapped together by her [Dark Tendrils], struggling to free themselves in futile wailing.

“Stygian Lightning.” With a wolf-like snarl, the thunder shot out of the woman’s arm and struck the gathered knopries.

“““Kriiiiiaagrhrkkkk!!!””” The collective cries of pain all ended in unison by the explosion of lightning, shaking the very air from dark energy.

The barkwraith watched all of this happening, dumbstruck by the sudden intervention of these new enemies. While it tried to support the knopbries, its wooden fingers and root weren’t able to extend any closer to the fighting, suppressed by red dust clouding around it.

While none of them were set on fire, sparks did happen wherever it tried to join the fight. It was confused, it knew fire could stop its regeneration and growth, but small sparks shouldn’t be able to. It was only when it noticed a new notification appear in its head did it understand what was happening.

[Dread Burn] inflicted on [Barkwraith Protector, *]

“Once you have it, you can’t regenerate anymore. Doesn’t matter if you’re the best cleric in the world or the strongest troll. No health regeneration for you.”

Filled with dread, the barkwraith jolted its head towards the voice.

“Yo.”

The sound of cracking wood was the last thing the treant heard as its head tumbled on the ground.

***********************************************

Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]’s Job [Crimson-Scaled Dreadgiver] has risen from [Level 0] to [Level 1]

Yikes, were it not for Tasianna, we probably would have missed what was happening here. Urgh, out of the 15 adventurers, five got killed.

I guess it was kinda ironic that I was reading a book about what dungeons were, written by some guy from the Folschrek Empire. I thought it would be a good read while we journeyed through this place, but I didn’t expect when I got to the “Quests would be issued for floor boss monsters” part that Tasianna told us a group of adventurers was about to be wiped out by some monsters.

Although they would usually lead us into traps or weird spots, Tasianna has been able to put her [Fae Whisperer] Job to use by being able to speak with spirits and spriggans who wandered into this dungeon. And you heard right, most of the ones Tasianna listened to bamboozled us and caused us more trouble than necessary. When Tasianna mentioned that fae were tricksters, she couldn’t be more right, and Grimnir absolutely hated it.

This warning happened after we decided to make camp on floor nine and go to sleep, so you could understand why nobody would be happy to hear this. Tasianna could be trusted, but the fae she spoke to were a different case. When we finally got Grimnir to move his heavy ass, Saori managed to hear the cries halfway through our sprint. The rest was history.

“Bladdarg. We tazongs ain’t build as sprinters! We got the stamina for marches and long runs, but don’t expect me to go from one spot to the other at the same speed like you lasses with your high Agility. We’re dangerous in short distances,” Grimnir grumbled as he hacked the barkwraith’s body into pieces small enough to carry. It wasn’t the best wood, but the lumber from a treant was still better than from a normal tree.

After we wiped out the horde of monsters and managed to save who we could, our party went to claim the spoils. Saori, Tasianna, and Ellaine were dismantling the knopbries and Grimnir hacked the backwraith with a woodcutter’s axe while I tended to the injured, but alive, adventurers. Some were bleeding excessively and others had broken bones, but nothing I couldn’t solve.

“Thank you very much, M’Lady Priestess,” an adventurer in his twenties named Naden thanked me after I patched himself up, looking elated that his injuries wouldn’t cripple him for the remainder of his life.

“Barkwraith Quest, I guess?” I wondered, having seen a group of adventurers carry this monster’s body a week ago, which led to me wanting its timber after inspecting it. As Naden nodded with a frown, one of his party members patted him on the shoulder, thanking me and my party for helping out in the nick of time.

As they were about to offer me money, I rejected it, pointing their attention towards my other patients. “If I take your money, I have to take theirs, too. You only had one person I had to help out with [Major Heal], but not them. The normal price is 5000 Davi, but even my rate of 500 Davi per person still isn’t exactly cheap, especially after you handed us the body of the barkwraith.”

Inside a dungeon, rules couldn’t be enforced since guild officials weren’t able to wander around on all floors, so adventurers had to form unofficial ones to resolve issues. Even if the guild was to form rules, nobody could actually make sure they were followed if a guild official wasn’t around, so it wasn’t any different from not having rules at all. It was chaotic.

While collaborating parties would settle on a rule before entering the dungeon, it would be more chaotic in the case of a random party helping, or even “kill stealing,” another party’s prey. Some disputes get resolved amicably, but others… can get quite bloody.

“As if! That is our prey! We found it first!” I remembered one of the grieving adventurers shouting at Grimnir when he took out his axe to chop the barkwraith. “We found it, first! You think you can take it just for helping?! YOU DIDN’T EVEN SAVE EVERYBODY! WE DIDN’T ASK FOR YOUR- URGH!”

“Shut your trap, you damn manling! Are you sick of life or what? Should I have left you to turn into fertilizer for the damn dungeon?!” Grimnir bellowed at one of the emotional adventurers, having just punched him in the gut for yelling at him. “Hmph! Ungrateful manling! You want your prize, then raise your hand and fight for it.”

“Mister Grimnir, please, cal-” Saori tried to diffuse the situation but Grimnir quickly snapped at her.

“Your four wanted the damn treant for your weapons and catalysts, and I’m chopping it for the dragonewt lass to carry it. You think what I’m doing is wrong?” Grimnir spat out, reminding us what we told him before. “We helped them and Hestia is healing their injuries. Fair game. Are we supposed to come out of this empty-handed after risking our lives?”

“No, I mean, these people just lost some of their party members. Aren’t you being a bit too harsh, Mister Grimnir? We could share,” Saori suggested, but Grimnir argued back.

“You think they earned any spoils after doing nothing? You did most of the cleanup, Saori, and I’m not even thinking of taking some for myself, despite wanting a branch of two. You work hard, you get rewarded,” Grimnir scoffed. “I feel for the lads and lasses here, but I ain’t coddling some strangers. Death can get you emotional, but if it gets you to spit on your saviors, then I’ll hammer into their heads what Crustacia does to idiots!”

The glare Grimnir gave them afterward made anybody still angry about the results meek. And that is how we landed in this situation.

After I healed everybody’s wounds, some of the grieving adventurers began to bury their former companions, despite knowing what the dungeon would do to them. Our party decided to make camp here, cooking a hot meal for the adventurers before we headed to bed with the monster materials securely in my storage. From the sounds of crying, I guess some of them couldn’t fall asleep.

Once our party woke up, we noticed the grieving adventurers had already left. Only Naden and his party, the only party that hadn’t lost anyone, stayed behind to thank us once again before departing themselves. We continued on a short time later.

Due to the size of this place, it took us a bit to cut our way through the forest, but we eventually found the stairs, ending our days inside the forests of floors five to nine. We had departed from Cedaraille at dawn, but it still took us a whole day, roughly, to reach floor nine.

Once we made it to the bottom of the staircase, there was no longer any sight of a forest.

“Wow, what a huge ravine!” I stated as I stared into the distance, trying to find the end of this huge place. The sky might have been shining blue, but sadly there was no sun in sight.

But my wonderment didn’t last long, for my attention was immediately taken by something flying in the sky.

“Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!”

A bear-sized felwing was coming our way.

A note from AbyssRaven

"Yo." Most intimidating yo from an anime girl ever.

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About the author

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Thursday, June 10, 2021 4:18:38 AM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

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