A few minutes away from the dungeon entrance.

The blackened soil that surrounded the lonely mountain had stood mostly undisturbed for hundreds of years, only being intruded upon by the occasional roaming monster or lost traveller seeking shelter in the wasteland of tainted earth.

They would find no such safe haven, not in this barren land. Whilst the lack of dangerous beasts or other such life made it seem safe at first, leading many to take temporary refuge under the shade of the mountain, one simple fact kept the land untenable for any sort of permanent inhabitancy.

There was no plant life or water for as far as the eye could see. No life could take to the soil, nor could water carve its way through. The dirt itself repulsed any such attempts with the sickly mana that had taken root there.

The events that led to the complete desolation of the surrounding area had occurred centuries ago, far longer than the memories or even the lives of most mortals. Yet despite the fact that the tragedy that had occurred here long ago was lost to the annals of history, the earth itself still remained lifeless and tainted.

The blackened soil that surrounded the lonely mountain had stood mostly undisturbed for hundreds of years, so the well-armed and armoured group of four that trekked with absolute focus and certainty through the silent wasteland was an unusual sight indeed.

Each of these travellers bore a single crest displayed prominently on their battle wear, a mark that told the world that they were licenced adventurers supported by a guild.

The symbol was a silver circle, with the shape showing that the individual wearing it was a guild member and the metal it was made of revealing their status as branch class adventurer, far stronger than either seed or sapling class adventurers.

Within the circle was a diagonal criss-cross pattern that was engraved in such a way that it appeared to be made of leaves. This final part of the crest showed the bearer’s affiliation or membership with the guild of Ulifer. It was a sign that they showed allegiance to said guild and represented it with their words and actions.

The party of adventurers were a varied bunch, a well armoured fighter to take and dish out damage in melee. A ranger armed with a bow and skilled in navigating terrain. A mage who controlled the battlefield with spells and a cleric to keep the rest of the party safe and healthy.

“Are we nearly there yet?” The fighter called out in a purposefully annoying sing-song tone. She grinned as the ranger responded with a grunt, his face twisted into a scowl that betrayed his attempts to hide his reaction.

“We will get there when we get there.” The ranger replied as he steered the party around an unstable patch of earth. “Not a moment before and not a moment afterwards.” He pushed his dark brown hair out of his eyes revealing pointed elvish ears.

“Oh lighten up Mr serious fun killer!” The mage laughed as he elbowed the ranger teasingly. “You know she’s just messing with you, right V?”

“For the last time, stop giving me nicknames, it’s Vaati! Not V, not Vex and certainly not Vivi!” Vaati snapped as his irritation finally got the better of him. “Just because you like to shorten names doesn’t mean the rest of us do, Bartholomew.”

“Meh.” Bartholomew the mage shrugged as he tried to shake some dirt off of his blue cloth robes. “They’re more for my sake than anyone else’s, besides I let you call me Bart, so it’s fair right?”

“No!” Vaati let out an exasperated sigh as he distracted himself by fiddling with his leather armour. Finally he turned to the last member of the party. “Luna please, back me up here.” He pleaded.

Luna the cleric rubbed her chin in contemplation, letting her white robes flow freely as her long light brown hair wavered in the wind. Her other hand clutched a plain metal staff that was only slightly shorter than her with a red gem on top.

“Bart, try not to be too annoying.” She spoke with a sense of finality. “Vaati, you should be used to this by now, if you don’t want to get involved in his madness then you need to learn to ignore him.” Last but not least, Luna gestured to the fighter with her staff. “Marigold, stop walking in front of Vaati, you’ll block his line of sight.”

Marigold blushed slightly as she slowed down, not having realised that she’d started walking at the front of the party by instinct. Bart let out a chuckle at his teammate’s mistake, whilst Vaati once again focused on navigation. The mountain they needed to get too was in sight, yet he still kept a keen eye open in search of potential ambush spots.

“So… Are we nearly there yet?” Marigold called out again, this time more seriously. This still elicited a groan from Vaati and a chuckle from Bart, so it was Luna who gave her an answer.

“If the magical readings from the guilds magi are correct then the new dungeon should be in that mountain over there.” She spoke in a dull tone whilst not once turning her head to face Marigold. “The most magically attuned of us should be able to feel where the dungeon is when we draw near, considering our party composition the first to do so should be Bart…”

“Found it!” Bart cried out in glee as he pointed at one side of the mountain. “I can feel it, it’s just on the other side of that big hill thingy over there!”

“You mean it’s on the other side of the mountain.” Vaati corrected absentmindedly.

“Isn’t that what I just said?” Bart’s tone was seeped in naivety, but the smirk on his face gave the joke away.

Luna and Vaati shared a look of suffering between each other, while Marigold simply ignored Bart’s strange sense of humour. Still the group pressed onwards, walking around the mountain until they came face to face with the dungeon entrance.

“Hey, why’s there grass growing here?” Bart spoke up suddenly, causing the rest of the party to look at the ground where he was pointing.

Surrounding the entrance to the dungeon in a neat semi-circle was a small patch of grass that seemed to have grown in spite of the inhospitable environment.

While most of the group tried to figure out what this meant, Luna remembered the answer almost immediately.

“It’s the dungeon,” she answered calmly. “Dungeons act like filters for mana, removing impurities and indirectly encouraging the growth of flora and fauna. Normally this effect is difficult to notice, since it just makes nearby plants grow a bit faster, here though… It’s making life grow and develop where none should be. It is truly fascinating.” A hint of excitement leaked into Luna’s normally dull voice as she shared her knowledge.

“Right, so nothing to worry about then!” Bart exclaimed jovially. “Just some plants and stuff, not freaky dungeon plant monsters.”

“While it’s not something to fear exactly, it is certainly worth paying attention to,” Vaati pointed out drily as he hefted his bow into a more comfortable combat ready position. “Personally I’m looking forward to seeing this land filled with life, if the effect spreads far enough people may choose to settle here in the near future.”

“Come on Vaati!” Marigold cried out as she drew her broadsword. “Surely you can’t be excited by some grass when we’re about to go dungeon diving!?”

“Of course he’s excited Marigold!” Bart answered before Vaati could respond. “After all, he’s the V elf! In fact…” A grin threatened to split Bart’s face as he opened his mouth to inhale air dramatically. A sense of dread hit Vaati, who tried to interrupted his comrade but was too late to stop him from opening his mouth again.

“Virtuous Vaati valiantly vanquishes villainous vagabonds!” Bart shouted with gravitas, as he pointed at Vaati with great conviction and pride.

Vaati shot an arrow at him.

The bolt flew fast and true, following its masters aim to perfection. Fortunately for Bart, the ranger had not been aiming to kill him so the arrow soared over his head, barely brushing his short brown hair before carrying on and striking the ground far behind him.

“You could have killed me!” Bart yelped as he touched his hair just to make sure it was all still there.

“I could have.” Vaati remarked calmly. “But I didn’t.”

“…Why not?” Bart couldn’t help but ask.

“You actually used my full name for once.” He answered with a small smirk. “I’m hoping that it is a sign of improvement, if it is not however…” Vaati knocked another arrow just to make a point.

Luna rolled her eyes as she watched the byplay between her teammates. It had taken her some time to get used to the antics of her fellow adventurers, but over the year that had passed since their team had been formed she’d learned how to balance their eccentricities.

She knew from experience that neither the mage nor the ranger escalate to actually trying to hurt each other without extreme outside influence. Bart would tell a joke, Vaati would respond either with annoyance, wit or both and it would happen again and again whilst they travelled.

Still the two had managed to develop a strange sort of comradery based around their conversations that no amount of bothering each other would break. Still they would sometimes start their little word fights at the worst of times, when that happened they needed either herself or Marigold to get them to focus.

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For a few seconds Luna debated whether or not to intervene, but one look at Marigold’s face quickly convinced her otherwise. The fighter’s expression was slowly twisting into one of impatience and frustration, a sign that it wouldn’t be long until…

“Alright you two break it up!” Marigold yelled as she swung her sword, letting it impact the ground with an audible thunk as it pierced the earth. “We have a dungeon to raid and report on! So let’s go squish some little monsters!”

Marigolds rage, Luna mused, could always be relied on to stop the two from bickering whenever she was spoiling for a fight.

“Let’s get into formation.” Luna spoke up as she shifted the way she held her staff from its normal place by her side to a more combat orientated stance. “Marigold, you take first position, Vaati follow her and watch out for traps, Bart you hold back in third and I’ll bring up the rear.”

With a level of professionalism one wouldn’t expect from a team that seemed to be arguing so much, they quickly fell into formation with weapons drawn and minds focused on their goal.

“Indigo Raiders! Advance!” Marigold yelled as she began walking onwards, her metal armour shining in the daylight like a polished mirror.

The entire team marched into the first room of the dungeon, the silence only interrupted by the trudging sound of their shoes hitting the soil. Soon the tunnel they had entered widened out into an open cave that was shaped like a half sphere.

The party of adventurers paused as they entered, surveying the room for signs of traps or other irregularities. Noticing these small oddities could mean the difference between life and death.

The first thing the group noticed was how smooth the stone of the walls, ceiling and floor were, almost completely void of curves and irregularities in the rock, not even a single stalactite or stalagmite to break up the obviously artificial cave.

If the adventurers held any doubts of this being a new-born dungeon they were dispelled immediately by this. As experienced dungeon divers they recognised the incredibly plain design of the room as proof that it had only been formed recently by a young core.

As the group absorbed this information, they also noticed that the room was not empty. Six large red monster beetles were milling about at the other end of the room, seemingly unaware of the intruders in the dungeon.

Unfortunately before the Indigo raiders could capitalise on this, all of the beetles snapped to attention, their heads and pincers turned to face the invaders in eerie unison.

The silence stretched on for a few moments as both groups stared each other down, the adventurers standing as still as statues whilst the beetles squeezed their pincers menacingly.

Then as if a hidden secret signal had been given, the six beetles charged.

Vaati and Bart responded first, with finely honed reflexes the elf ranger loosed the arrow he had knocked earlier. Meanwhile Bart had begun waving his wooden wand around in a simple pattern, letting his mana flow into his casting tool of choice.

An icicle formed right in front of the mages body, it floated in the air for a moment before one last motion from Bart sent it flying in the direction of the monsters.

The arrow impacted first, piercing the monster’s exoskeleton near its head and lodging firmly in the wound. The beetle shrieked in pain as the shock forced it to halt its advance, the blow not being immediately fatal thanks to the creatures natural defences, yet it was still debilitating.

A different beetle was struck with the ice lance, cutting directly through its head. Unlike the arrow however the icicle had been fortunate enough to be aimed directly at the creature’s brain, a lethal blow that caused the beetle to drop lifelessly to the ground in an instant.

The remaining four uninjured continued their charge, undeterred by the fates of their comrades. A grin formed on Marigold’s face as she widened her stance, purposefully making herself a bigger target to shield her teammates.

The first of the beetles to reach the fighter made the mistake of charging her head on. It was quickly shown the grievous nature of its error as Marigold lowered her sword and let the charging creature impale itself on her blade, the beast unable to halt its momentum in time to avoid getting skewered.

While Marigold was distracted with the first charging bug, a second leapt at her from the side, angling its sharp pincers directly at her throat.

The blow did not land however, the fighter simply raised her gauntlet and caught the attack on her armoured limb. The weight of the bug and the strength of the blow didn’t even phase her as she sent it flying with shake of her arm.

It was now, with two beetles dead and another badly wounded, that the worm arrived.

Bursting out of the ground with an awful cry of rage, three monster worms with skin like stone appeared. The trio of beast each ignored the incredibly strong fighter and made a beeline towards the other adventurers that she was protecting, while the remaining beetles kept her distracted.

Seeing two of the worms coming from his left, Bart quickly weaved his wand in a slightly more complex pattern than the one he used for his last spell. This time a thin wave of ice exploded from the tip of his wand, the magical effect quickly expanding and striking the two worms simultaneously.

The monster worm duo shrieked as the ice wave swept over them, the magical frost covering their stony flesh and locking them in place. The two worms were rendered helpless in seconds, unable to move their bodies for even the smallest of wriggles.

Quickly taking advantage of his foes unfortunate predicament, Vaati knocked another arrow and began pouring his magical energy into it. He needed to make sure that his arrows could pierce the skin of the beasts, charging them with some mana would certainly help with that.

While Bart and Vaati handled worm’s one and two, the third worm had approached from the right of the party and was now barrelling towards Luna at a rapid pace.

Easily sighting her approaching adversary, Luna showed not a single flicker of panic on her nearly expressionless face as she swung her staff around to face her attacker.

The worm dove in to the ground before once again bursting out of the earth, the beast angled its body sideways, looking to wrap itself around the adventurer’s legs and crush them.

Luna didn’t give it that chance, her staff glowed with golden light as she channelled arcane power through it. Using the base of her staff like a spear she thrusted it directly at the centre of the worms body, the magical energy coating her weapon smashing through the stone tough skin with ease and sent the worm flying. It was dead and broken from the impact long before it hit the floor.

Back with Marigold, she had the three remaining beetle monsters dancing to her tune. Despite the enemies superior numbers her skill, strength and experience more than made up the difference. Already she had cleaved another bug in two and cut off the front legs of a second.

As she battled aside the last uninjured bug and delivered the coup-de-grace against the one she had just de-legged, Marigold added mentally another point to her kill count. With only one weak enemy left to fight, she quickly went in for the finishing blow.

Vaati and Bart had made short work of the two stone worms that had attacked them, Vaati’s magically enhanced arrows almost completely ignoring their normally formidable defence. With most of the monsters dead the ranger turned his attention towards the beetle he had injured at the beginning of the fight.

The red creature had spent most of the battle after it was injured keeping to the edges of the room, as if it was unsure what it should do now that it had such a heavy wound, complete with lodged arrow. Still the distance between the bug and the party didn’t save it when Vaati loosed one last arrow that struck the creature in the eye and finished it off.

The fighting was over and none of the Indigo raiders had even broken a sweat.

Luna spoke up first.

“Thoughts?” She asked in a dull tone flavoured with only the barest hints of curiosity.

“The beetles were weak.” Marigold answered as she began looking over her armour for dents. “Even a seed class guy or gal could take them one on one with only a few scrapes, saplings would waltz all over a fair fight and a good one could probably fight three or four at once.” She let out a pleased grunt as she noticed her armour had held up well.

“The worms are more worrisome though.” Vaati went next, taking the opportunity to try and salvage some of his fired arrows. “That skin looks rough to break, not to mention their tunnelling ability create a lot of ambush possibilities.” With a yank he pulled an arrow out of one of the bugs, letting out a sigh as he noticed the head had broken.

“Physical resistance certainly didn’t help them against magic though,” Bart pointed out, letting some professionalism leak into his demeanour. “They’re obviously too much for a single seed class adventurer to take, but a decent sapling should be able to handle the extra defence.”

“Certainly,” Vaati agreed begrudgingly. “That is if they were dealing with just a single monster. One sapling against a hoard of monsters like we had here would be quickly overwhelmed. A group of sapling class adventures however would fare much better.”

Luna listened quietly as her teammates discussed the strength of the dungeon’s monsters, it was one of the many things they would need to note in their report about the dungeon once they finished their journey and returned to Ulifer. She was about to offer her own opinion when someone interrupted.

“Hey Luna.” Marigold waved her gauntlet in front of her cleric ally, snapping her out of her thoughts. “Do you have any idea what kind of monsters these are? I’ve never heard of these giant red beetles or stone worms before.” This was not an unusual question for the fighter to ask, between the two of them Luna had always been the more academically inclined.

Seeing a chance to show off some of her knowledge while also helping her teammates, Luna froze for a second as she contemplated what to say. While she was almost one hundred percent sure she knew what the beetles were, the identity of the stone worms alluded her.

Eventually she decided to tell her party what she knew, though it pained her somewhat to admit to lacking knowledge, her responsibilities to help the group in any way possible came first.

“The large bugs are called giant fire mountain beetles.” Luna began, using her staff to gesture to one of the corpses. “They are a monster variation of a much smaller insect rather unimaginatively named fire mountain beetles, they absorb fire based mana from the environment to survive and can withstand extreme amounts of heat from natural sources.” After pausing to confirm that the rest of the party was still listening to her explanation, Luna continued on.

“Fire mountain beetles are only birthed in areas where the average level of heat and fire based mana is rather high, such as near a volcano. A powerful enough magic user could create the correct conditions artificially, though it would be difficult. The fact that there are giant fire mountain beetles here also means their non-monster counterparts must be here as well, so they have something to evolve from, see?” Luna pointed at a small ruby coloured bug on the wall, proving her point.

“The worms however…” Luna gently touched her chin with her hand, her eyes seemed to stare into nothingness as if she was in deep thought. This only lasted for about a second or two before Luna snapped out of it and mentally berated herself for hesitating.

“The worms are a kind I have neither seen nor read about.” She finally said, the words now spoken felt even heavier than they had been in her thoughts, but she ploughed on regardless. “While giant burrowing worms are nothing new, ones with stone flesh certainly are. I honestly know nothing about this species.” Once Luna finished, but before anyone else could speak, Bart began to chuckle.

“Yes!” He cheered between bouts of laughter. “I knew you didn’t know everything Lulu, now I finally have proof!” Bart waved his wand around, causing little lights formed from mana to dance around his head in a merry jig as he kept laughing.

It took all of Luna’s years of practice in focus and meditation to not immediately bash Bart’s head in with her staff. Even then she couldn’t stop the beginning of a scowl from forcing its way on to her normally blank face.

Quickly noticing Luna’s agitation at Bart’s sense of humour, Vaati quickly moved the conversation forward.

“So we’ll be collecting samples on the way out for the guild?” Vaati asked, barely managing to not breathe a sigh of relief when Luna’s expression returned to normal and she nodded.

“Enough of all this!” Marigold yelled, her voice drawing everyone’s attention. “We’re in a dungeon for crying out loud, sure it’s young and the monster are weak but we should be fighting them instead of talking about stupid stuff!” The agitation and eagerness in Marigold’s voice was blindingly obvious.

“What we are discussing is very important to our guild mission, recon and report remember?” Luna asked rhetorically. “Still… we have enough information on this room now so it should be fine to push on to the next one.” The Indigo raiders quickly moved into the same formation they had entered the dungeon with and once again pressed onwards.