Paige was sitting in the guild hall’s bar, when a few of her friends got back from their scouting mission. Some local had claimed that he had found a dungeon in the Phantom Mountains. They grabbed drink each and waved over to their guild mates in the bar before headed to the back office to report into the guild leader. She was just glad that Frank had not made her go. 

It was not likely that it was a dungeon. The last scouting group had cleared that mountain range out only ten years ago. They had probably found a beast lair or a few wondering beasts, but that was all. A dungeon took a long time to develop. Even if this actually was a dungeon, it wouldn’t be dangerous to anything larger than an insect. 

She clinked her ring against the glass mug. Not that a new dungeon would help much anyway. It would probably be another earth or maybe ice dungeon. The Phantom Mountains were a cold and barren collection of rocks. It would take a good two weeks of travel to get there. Well, probably twelve days to get there and two days to navigate the mountain. Good thing it was spring. Otherwise, a fire mage would have to spend who knows how much mana to melt through some of those passages. What a wasteland.

Paige laughed to herself as she started to hear Frank’s voice rise as he was chewing into the party. Charles and Greg had probably just let Frank know that they had found some beast lair that had gobbled up a shepherd or two. Charles was a wind cultivator though. At least he probably got a chance to cultivate a bit with the mountain winds.

Frank’s last bellow was so loud that Paige could understand it when he told them to get out. She quickly got the bartender’s attention and ordered two more beers. After getting busted back down to fishie by Frank, she was sure that they could use another round. Greg came out and walked over to sit with Paige. Charles came out a moment later and walked over to join them.  

Paige pushed over the drinks to them. “DId you save all the sheep?” Charles immediately started drinking his new beer. Greg swirled his beer and settled in to tell his story for the fourth time. “Lass, we saved a few sheep, but this dungeon got four of the shepherds that found the place. They were just standard bumkins, but it killed four of them.”

She set down her beer and stared at him. “Are you serious? I thought for sure that it was just a beast that ate some sheep. Was it Infernal?” She tried to keep her tone more scared than excited. Greg’s eyebrows shifted a bit, but Charles missed it entirely. 

“Paige, you are going to love this.  We went to this hole in the ground with Priest Henry and a wind mage elf. You know some of those High Elves. He didn’t even tell us his name and we spent five days together. Priest Henry though, he was stomping around trying to take charge of the mission the entire time. Then, at the boss...” He just started to laugh to himself.

She looked back to Greg and gave him a blank stare. Greg shook his head. “We get there and the landowner tells us that him and four men seeing this hole in the ground shining blue. They walk in and one of the blokes falls into a pit trap. They walk all the way in to the floor boss. Turns out it’s a big mushroom. One of the locals wants to go eat this big mushroom. In a twist of fate, it bites him in half. The boss takes out another of them with a ranged thorn. The other two make a break for it. Some smaller mushroom mobs take out the older one on their way out.”

With the report given, Greg took a long drink from his beer. She looked over to Charles again. “So the dungeon’s affinity. It was Infernal?” 

Charles took the cue and picked up the story. “It is a four room dungeon. It is completely fishie friendly. It was all moss and mushrooms. Greg lit up his attacks and the moss burned to cinders. The mushrooms were crazy. The red caps were about the size of pumpkins and they would bite. There were smaller white cap mushrooms too. It had your standard intro traps. A few pitfalls, rockfalls, and even a false wall with spikes against the side. The boss was great. It was a redcap that was about as tall as that dwarf that you used to run with. Priest Henry though, oh Priest Henry. He pushed out up front and charges into the boss room. It turns out that it also has moss tendrils. This moss wraps around his feet and drops him on his arse.  You should have heard him!”

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He did his best impersonation of the Priest. “This is a G ranked dungeon! How did it sneak up on me?” Going back to his regular voice, “Then that mushroom reeled in the priest like an actual fish! It opened up it’s mouth and was ready to bite his head off before Greg jumped in and cut him loose.”

Greg raised his glass for another beer. “It wouldn’t have done anything anyway. That mushroom could have chewed on him all day before it got through his aura. His expression was reward enough though. The elf got in a few good swipes on the mushroom. Charles saved me a nasty headache when he blocked a thorn the size of my hand. Enough was enough, so I finished it off with a fire dart. The local was right about one thing though,it did make a good stew. The crazy thing was that none of the mobs were over G9. Then, this boss shows up as an F7 boss mob.”

Paige was still holding the beer halfway up to lips. “That is great to see that stuffy priest brought down a peg. Odd to see the boss that much stronger than the dungeon mobs. So this dungeon was Infernal? I can see that getting Frank all worked up.”

Charles completely ignored her question and continued his story. “ We got the edible bits from the mushroom as loot and a bit of copper. Priest Henry was convinced that it was Infernal, since it had eaten those four shepherds. So, we were going to take the core and use it for a spell component for the guild leaders. I look around and find the core in a stalagmite. There’s some little tree growing on top of the core.  I pull out my sword to cut away the tree and the elf hits me with a blast of wind!”

Greg picked up the story. “It turns out that the sapling is actually a silverwood. Charles here almost started a war between the Lion kingdom and High Elven nation. He tells us that this is certainly not an infernal dungeon and then the elf made Charles give it a quality dagger, a gold, silver, and a copper.”

“So after I apologize for almost starting a war, Priest Henry figures that he will try to start one. He takes out his inscribed pendant and says that he will make sure that this is not an Infernal dungeon even if it does start a war. The elf just grinned and said “Go for it.” So Henry puts the pendent inside the stalagmite and prays for the destruction of an Infernal core.” He waved his hands dramatically.

Greg let the pause go for a bit, then continued. “Then, nothing happened at all. Priest Henry pulls out the chain. Get this. The dungeon ATE his pendant! He turned and started chewing out the elf. THe elf puts some wards on the tree and we head out.”

Charles drew a dagger and set it on the table. “ RIght before we leave, there is a single mushroom mob right in front of the door. We take it out and it drops my coins, this dagger here, and Henry’s pendant. I like this dungeon already!”

Paige picked up the dagger and examined it. “That’s incredible. The dungeon gave you back all of the tribute that you need to give to the dungeon as part of the scouting pack? Also, what affinity was the dungeon if it wasn’t an Infernal?”

Greg finally took pity on Paige and answered her questions. “Well lass, that’s the odd thing. All of us checked and we couldn’t determine what it’s affinity was. I think it simply doesn’t have an affinity. It seems to be pure essence. I would wager that anyone can cultivate it. Earth, FIre, anyone. Probably even Infernal.” Greg raised his eyebrows at her. 

Paige stood up and called for another round. “Gentlemen, thank you for your time. I appreciate the information, but I need to go talk to Frank. Wish me luck.” She tossed a few copper on the bartop for the drinks and then walked off to Frank’s office.

Walking up to  the office, Paige knocked a quick rhythm as she opened the door. “Hey Frank. I need to go to that new dungeon. I really want to check it out.” Frank let out a long sigh and looked to the ceiling. “Look Paige, I am going to send a team up there. However , you have signed a mana contract. After the break out of those fire beasts, the guild is supplying this city with four round the clock water cultivators. You are one of those cultivators. If you were to try to go to this new dungeon, you’d be dead by the time you got fifty miles away. Breaking a mana contract, bad way to go.”

Paige started pacing the office as she spoke. “The mana contract is for four water cultivators. It does not specifically say me. We can easily get one of the people that you mentioned from the team that’s headed up there to replace me.  You know the situation Frank. You know what a blessing a non-affinity dungeon would be to my son. He’s..”

Frank interrupted her as she tried to convince him. “I do know what you are doing and I do know your son. However, your son is not in the guild and thus is not my problem.”  He thought for a few moments, then sighed. “Paige, you and I go back a ways. You are specifically signed up for the contract here for the next year. Easy job, easy money. We could use another hunter or two on the team that’s headed to the new dungeon to set up a training camp. However, you and I are now even from that night in the Phoenix kingdom.”

Paige grabbed him by the hand and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you so much Frank. I’m going to go tell Korin now.” She turned and ran out of the office as Frank waved her away.