Chapter 12: Chapter 11 – Dungeon Exploring

A giant rat was standing and nibbling on some rotten meat. The creature was in some kind of corridor made of stone, some torches to the sides were lighting the whole place up. Suddenly the creature perked up, it noticed something in the distance and gave out a high pitched wail.

"Mana arrow!"

The creature couldn't close its mouth in time as a blue arrow made from energy pierced it. It came out on the other side and connected with the wall before evaporating into the ether. A group of four people walked up, in the front was a large muscular woman with brownish skin. She wasn't wearing a lot of protection but her body looked like a marble statue. She was quite muscular and her abdominal muscles were popping out for others to see. 

Right next to her was a white-haired girl with pointy wolf ears, she was holding onto two long daggers and as she walked you could see a bushy white tail following after. She was much shorter than the large person in the front which made her stick out when the two walked side by side.  

In the back, there was a redhead wearing some brown leather armor and a bow over her shoulder. She had a full quiver of arrows and was just following after the other two girls in the front. Right next to her was the shortest member of the party, a young-looking boy with brown hair and green eyes named Roland. He was getting patted on the shoulder by this bow lady that had a broad grin plastered over her face.

"Nice hit there kid, took that rat out in one go!"

This was the new Party that Roland was part of and today was the first day of their Dungeon expedition. This was just the entrance area so the girls wanted to see what he could do. He decided to use his spell that had the most punching power. It used up more mana than the basic mana bolt spell and needed a longer casting time. But thanks to his mana reserves and high intelligence this wasn't a problem. His incantation skill was leveling up along with his spells so they were getting progressively more powerful. 

"It was only a low-level dungeon rat... that thing is weaker than a goblin, nothing to be happy about..."

Roland shrugged while the group walked.

"Hah, think he is shy."

The two talkative girls that were Rebecca and Sahildr laughed at the reply. Reyna remained vigilant and walked at the helm of the party, she had the scout class along with the thief class. Roland could have sworn that he saw her sniffing at the air.

'Is she really a wolf?... maybe just a hunting dog instead?'

The girl was part of the beast race. This race was divided into various tribes that mostly stayed separated from the other ones. There were various beast races, feline ones, ursines, and even ones that resembled lizards. Even those had variations in them like people that were closer in appearance to lions and ones to tigers. Due to the varied appearance that this race had, it was hard for them to get along. 

"It's your first time here Roland, you might not know this but this isn't really the dungeon area that adventurers like us explore."

Roland looked at the corridor, it was wide to fit in a truck into it. They have been walking through a couple of those which made him think that it would be one of those maze-like dungeons. This is why his eyes went wide as he saw light coming from afar when the group walked out they came out into a wide-open space that looked like a jungle forest.

"Welcome to the real dungeon, this is the first floor."

Becky proclaimed while holding both her hands on her hips. The forest area was truly gigantic, there was even something akin to a sun above them. Roland didn't know what to say, he didn't expect this from what he had read he only knew that these types of dungeons had floors or levels. He imagined them to be more of a maze of corridors with slightly larger rooms here and there, but here we had a giant space that probably was a couple of kilometers in width. 

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"This is the first level of the Carwen Dungeon, it's called the Emerald Wilderness. This is the hunting grounds for the Steel ranked adventurers like us."

"The levels continue all the way to the 10th, on that level you have to beat the dungeon boss. Though you have to make an appointment with the guild and be lucky enough for no one else to steal it."

"Steal it?"

Roland asked while stepping into the first dungeon level. The ground and grass felt normal like he was stepping onto a real forest, but he could feel that the mana here was a bit peculiar.

"Yes, the boss takes a whole week to respawn, some strong adventurer parties or guilds will hog the boss room for resources. "

"Oh, that makes sense."

Roland replied as that would probably be something that he would do. If it was like in games, the bosses probably dropped some rare items or materials. If you could hog those resources for yourself you could make quite a bit of cash. It was natural for the ones on top to try and hog the resources for themselves.

"You're quite chatty today Becky, showing off in front of our Little Goblin Slayer here?"

The large lady smirked while pushing some bushes to the side as they continued walking, the wolf-like girl was still in the front sniffing at the air. The red-haired girl blushed a bit while glaring in the direction of her party member, Roland just chuckled while walking along with her.

"Hey, I'm just being a good senior adventurer here!"

"Enemy..."

While they were talking Roland heard an unfamiliar voice, it was coming from the front and belonged to the wolf girl party member. It sounded quite cute and high pitched, it also had a tint of drowsiness to it making her sound sleepy. 

'So she can talk?'

Their tracker moved to the side while Sahildr moved to the front. She was holding a rather large two-handed hammer that probably weighed more than he did. Everyone got into their positions which consisted of two girls in the front and him together with Becky in the back. Some bushes in the front started rustling and soon enough a monster charged out, going straight for the nearest person.

The monster looked like a large boar. It was much larger and more muscular than a regular boar, its tusks were thicker and longer. It also had bone spikes coming out from its spine. It gave out a ferocious roar while charging at Sahildr, the large woman didn't falter as she grasped her hammer with both hands and managed to block the monster's path. The boar beast smacked into the hilt of the hammer, the girl that was holding it buckled under the weight and slid backward slightly. Her muscles bulged out and Roland could see her veins popping out as she kept the beast from moving forward.

The others weren't passive, while the monster was busy with the party's warrior a dagger plunged into its side. The moment the monster looked to the person inserting daggers into it an arrow lodged itself into its eye. The finishing blow was delivered by a giant hammer that shattered the creature's skull into pieces. Its snout released a spray of crimson blood that coated the nearby bushes as the monster died.

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