The wooden tub floats like a lone boat in the relaxing hot springs, inside of it Twy watched the night sky filled with glittering celestials.

'When are we going to climb that place?' he wondered, unconsciously sending waves of curiosity towards his partner.

Aster who's also enjoying this open bath, opened his eyes and tried to guess the kitten's thoughts. “Are you asking about why this water is hot?”

'No, I already know that.' Twy raised his left paw, before pointing the scenery beyond the fence. 'What I meant is, that.'

Aster glanced at where his mitten points and saw the silhouette of a mountain peak. “Do you mean, the dungeon?”

Twy raised his right paw as his answer.

The young man once again reclined his back on the stone boundary of the hot spring bath. “Our goal is to defeat one of the mid-bosses of Mustivos by the end of our stay.”

The kitten nodded calmly as Aster already told him about it beforehand.

“We're going to start tomorrow by first scouting a route towards our target location.” Aster raised his pointing finger and his middle finger followed. “The day after that, we're gonna hunt demons along the route,”

'Sounds reasonable.' Twy nodded his head, but his body froze when his partner continued.

“And if there's no accident that happens, we'll blast through the mid-boss and defeat it.” Aster's lips curled into a relaxed smile, meeting the kitten's eyes. “That way we have more time to enjoy the famous Dextrim's Lake.”

'Ah...' Twy slapped his forehead with his soft paw, he sighed like a salaryman after his overtime work. 'He set a flag again. How many does this make?'

The young man was left puzzled by his actions and the lack of excitement that he expected to feel from Twy, instead what Aster felt was a complex emotion like that of a tangled yarn. “What's wrong?”

Twy raised his left paw and also shook his head before he gazed at his partner with tired eyes. 'Sigh... I stocked up as much mana as I could last week, hopefully, it is enough to overcome all those flags alive.'

Aster could still feel Twy's worry, he dipped his shoulders under the warm spring water and closed his eyes. “For now, let’s relax and enjoy this moment,” he said, to reassure not just his partner but also himself.

The clouds parted and let the moon shine down its moonlight on the two.

•••

“'So this is a Demon Dungeon?'"

The human and cat pair had already seen photos of it online, but only after seeing it in person, with their eyes that they could feel its true magnificence.

The dungeon stood like a gray fortress worn out after a hundred years of wars; it showed itself like a barracks, housing thousands of soldiers ready to die at their general's command; it presented itself like a graceful palace where the royals, revered by the masses, lived their blissful lives.

In front of them was one of the tools, an epitome of demon's technology, widely used by the demon realm to invade and wreak havoc on this planet.

The Mustivos Castle!

“Stopped blocking the road, newbie!” a loud voice woke up the two from their stupor.

Aster turned around and saw a man in a hunter's clothing, a wooden longbow peaks over his left shoulder while a bird with prominent, red crosshair-like eyes was perched on his right.

Twy glared at the man. 'Are you blind? Can't you see how wide the road here!?' he then turned his head towards his partner. 'Be careful Aster, this guy must be here to bully novices like us!'

He once again tried to show them the fury of his eyes, but his furt curled up when the bird suddenly retaliated with the same act.

“I'm sorry, we—” Aster was about to apologize, but was interrupted by the man.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Go straight from here and you'll find that pub-looking building, here it's called Guild Hall.” the bow-bird man pointed towards the distance before his eyes landed back at the young man. “You can rent weapons and armor there, but before you're allowed to go inside the dungeon they'll first give you a briefing about it.”

Once he said his piece, the bow-bird man left as fast as he appeared, leaving the two creatures alone on the wide-open street.

Aster confusedly looked at the kitten which was also perched on his shoulder. “What just happened...?”

Twy shook his head and raised his left paw, he was also quite disoriented by the man's action. 'So... is he a good guy?'

Even though what happened left the two with a lot of questions, they still followed the directions that the man gave them.

Unlike the modern city at the foot of the mountain, the buildings here follow the architectural style of the Kingdoms Era—Medieval, in Earth's terms. The road was paved with cobblestones and the houses were built mostly with strong woods.

A castle with a small town beneath it, Aster felt like he had gone back in time as he walked through its streets.

It didn't take them a long time to find what the man called Guild Hall, it conspicuously stood on three floors dwarfing the other buildings in its surroundings.

The two then entered through its doors, their appearance was immediately met with the gazes of a dozen or so Beast Masters and their contracted companions.

Aster didn't let those get into him, he confidently walked towards one of the receptionists standing behind the desk. “Excuse me. I'd like to enter the dungeon, what should I do?”

The receptionist in a black vest appraised Aster for a moment before he replied with a question. “Is this your first time here?”

“Yes.”

“Please wait a minute.” he left the the two and passed through the door parallel to the desk, he shortly came back with a young lady in tow, she wore the same vest as him and looked two or three years older than Aster.

The man pushed her forward. “This here is Roxanne, she'll brief you on what to do before you'll be allowed to go inside the dungeon.”

“N-Nice to meet you.” Roxanne greeted Aster with an unpracticed smile. “P-Please follow me upstairs.”

'A new recruit?' Twy thought, looking at her nostalgically.

Aster gave his thanks to the man before he followed Roxanne as they climbed the stairs to the second floor, they then entered one of its rooms.

Roxanne sat first, then gestured to Aster to take the couch in front of her.

The young man accepted her offer, while the kitten jumped from his shoulder, taking a seat next to him.

With a square table in between the two only stared at each other. The clock in the room ticks, yet the uncomfortable silence continues to brew.

Roxanne was first to fold in pressure, she asked, “Um... a-are you sure you'd like to enter the dungeon?”

“Yes.” Aster nodded.

The young woman smiled, but before she could part her lips she saw Aster raised his hand. “W-What?”

“Is it possible to skip this part? We already knew the details online.” Aster suggested, he already prepared and gathered information about the dungeon—except for its map.

Twy nodded his head in agreement, 'Skip the boring dialogue, and let's go to action!'

“That's not possible.” Roxanne's smile faded, the aura surrounding her changed, and the pinkish hue in her cheeks vanished. Her brows strictly angled as she explained. ”Even though the dungeon here is already a controlled one, there's still a possibility of an emergency situation happening.”

Roxanne looked Aster straight to the windows of his soul. “When you accidentally faced a demon stronger than you; when you're losing so much blood and you can't think straight—are you so sure you can remember what to do to survive?”

Her grim voice continued to resound inside the small room. “Novices like you are like that, especially the ones in your generation. They thought that they already knew everything about the dungeon after reading some anonymous post online.”

She put her hands on top of the table, moving her upper body closer to Aster's personal space. “Do you know what happened to those people?”

Aster hesitantly nodded his head.

“Most of them died and some survived, but they're left traumatized.” she raised her hand before she tapped his forehead with her finger. “It's our job, to lessen the chance of people like you, experiencing something like that.”

Roxanne's intense presence subsided a little as she left his personal space and leaned her back to the couch, yet her gaze never left the young man. “So, are you going to skip the 'boring' briefing, head to the dungeon, and throw a dice to see if you have good luck today or not?”

Aster and Twy vehemently shook their heads, especially the kitten whose tail stood straight at the thought of the flags that his partner laboriously planted since last month.

“Good.” a gentle and charming smile graced Roxanne's lips after seeing their action, she then started her briefing with a statement. “There are two types of Demon Dungeon, Uncontrolled and Controlled. Mustivos Castle is the latter, specifically a Senate-controlled one.”

Aster already knew that, but he still nodded his head with a serious expression to show her that he was paying attention.

“Unlike Guild-controlled dungeon, it is open to the public and you only need to pay 10% of the loot you'll get inside.” Roxanne paused when she saw Aster raised his hand, “Yes?”

“Where can we sell our loot?”

“Here,” she pointed below before her smile turned dangerous, “and only here. If it's found that you sold them in different places, you can be charged with smuggling.”

Aster unconsciously gulped and courageously asked another question, “Is it possible if we just give the 10% of the materials, as for the rest use it for ourselves?”

“No, all materials that come out from the dungeon get sold to the government.” Roxanne answered with a solemn voice, she then raised her hand to stop the young man from talking, “No more questions about that topic, let's continue back to the briefing.”

Aster reluctantly nodded, while Twy next to him just shrugged.

'It's the government, what do you expect?'

•••