Approaching the lizardman Richard, Nadia and Nick talked amongst themselves.

''Say Richard, how come your humor is so strange at times?'' Nadia asked him, alternating her curious gaze between Richard and Nicholas.

''Uhh... It's just my own unique way to cope with the stress I guess? Sorry if I offended you in any way Dindu.''

''There you go again, didn't I tell you that shit is racist and extremely degrading. If this happened before the apocalypse I'd have sued you for malicious racial profiling.'' Huffed Nick in anger to which Richard just shrugged his shoulders.

''You know that it's just to lighten up the mood, why so serious? Besides dignified black mage such as yourself should not quarrel with the peasants like me.'' Chuckling in laughter Richard ran away from the wrathful fist of Nick, leaving behind the lone spectator of this Nadia who calmed the situation down.

''Guys, we have better things to do. There is still the loot to get so if you are not interested then I will gladly take everything.''

Calming himself down, Nick stopped chasing Richard and walked towards the lizardman's corpse, while Richard went to pick up the spear the lizardman threw at them.

Bashing the skull open from the creature, they hoped to find crystallized mana or anything of use.

''What a miser, not even a skill nor have anything of value with him.''

Nick exclaimed and turned to look back in Richard's direction.

''Well I would not be so sure about that.'' Richard replied in glee, waving the spear around erratically.

''I should try to use Inspect to see if I can find any new information about the equipment coming from the new creatures. Inspect''

Lizardman long spear Rating: Common [ Spear ] Damage: 11-20 Additional effects: None Weight: 2.5 kg Durability: 189/200

''It works! It actually works on the items from the new creatures!'' Richard yelled in an overjoyed manner.

''So what does it say?'' Curiously asking about the new item information Nadia and Nick craned their heads while looking greedily at the spear.

''It's basically what you see in games, like damage, weight, durability, name, type and what grade. This spear is common type and deals 11-20 damage but I am not sure how those damage values are reflected in combat.''

''So basically it is an RPG style loot system. I wonder why you cannot get readings on the weapons we had here originally on Earth?'' Nadia's eyes shined when she said this out loud, briefly imagining herself fully equipped with legendary gear looking down on the weak creatures.

''Yeah most likely it is like that, at least based on the pattern the System is presenting these things to us. We should still rely on the firearms and technology as we know what they do.''

''Onwards to more pressing matter, who gets the spear?'' Nick eyed the spear with greedy lights in his eyes, but after a brief moment he looked towards Nadia's makeshift morning star and decided to try to get it for her.

Richard pondered that should he try to get it, but somehow it seemed more logical to have it on Nadia. He could practically see in his mind Nadia wearing the long spear larger than herself and chuckled at the thought before conceding it to Nadia. On the condition of course that if she wants it.

''I could use it, but if you feel that it is more suitable for you, just take it. You are the current vanguard anyway so I can make due with my pole and pistols.''

Grinning happily Nadia skipped to take the spear and waved it a few times looking like a kid at Christmas.

Nick grumbled a while at the fact that Richard did not even ask if Nick wanted it, but directly conceded it to Nadia. While it made sense since he was the caster of the team, it was human nature to desire things that could be useful to you.

''Alrighty then, the owner of the spear is decided. Now the question is where did the lizardman come from.'' Nick announced and asked a bit flustered. If his thinking was correct, then there should be other lizardmen around here.

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''Could there be a dungeon or something similar nearby? I mean where would such creatures pop out of otherwise? From the thin air?'' Richard speculated and looked warily around.

''I think the lizardman came from that direction. It is worth taking a look, right?''

Getting back into the car, the team set off towards the way that the lizardman seemingly came from.

'' I wonder what the dungeons are like? I mean with magic and all, do we see entirely different dimensions with lush green fields, fiery volcanoes or maybe fantasy cities? It just makes me giddy from the expectation!'' Nadia fantasized while Richard and Nick shook their heads at each other.

''I think it is a possibility, but I would not get my hopes up to see fantastical sights. Reality is often disappointing. There is also a possibility of the dungeons being sewers, shitholes, graveyards and so on. So it's best to just wait and see.'' Nick muttered a slightly pessimistic opinion and continued driving forward.

''Hold up, I think I see two lizardmen over there. On the right side by the field about 200 meters away.'' Richard exclaimed as he spotted something tall seemingly coming from underground.

''Yeah, that should be lizardmen alright. The trail towards their nest seem getting clearer.''

''Try to run them over, me and Nadia can try to do some damage to them with good old fashioned drive-by shooting.'' Richard exclaimed in great joy and Nadia nodded her head seemingly agreeing at the idea.

Accelerating towards the two lizardmen, Richard and Nadia opened up the windows and poked half their torsos out of the windows and started to shoot.

''You have come to the wrong neighborhood, motherfuckers!'' Giddily Richard yelled, thinking to himself that maybe, just maybe he had seen too many memes on the internet.

Shaking his head to clear up useless thoughts he scored few solid hits in one of the lizardman's leg and it lost the balance, falling to the ground for a brief moment.

Your skill — Ranged attacks has increased to Lv.5

''Nice one, skill improvement! No wonder drive-by shootings were said to be effective back in the day.'' Richard uttered in pure joy, continuing to aim and shoot.

The lizardmen were looking a bit panicked at the incoming steel monstrosity and tried to dodge its unstoppable charge. Jumping, the other lizardman managed to dodge the car ramming him, but the one that fell briefly to the ground was flattened to a pancake.

''Woooooo! I obtained riding skill and experience! While your antics are idiotic, you were right this time. Sit back down and I'm parking the car in style'' Grinning from ear to ear Nick slowed the car down enough for a handbrake drift turn.

Sliding through the gravel, the car turned smoothly 90 degrees and the team came out to face the remaining lizardman.

''What a wasted opportunity Nick, if only we had Deja Vu playing it would have been perfect.'' Richard shook his head looking disheartened.

''I'm using Blast burn, cover me.''

Richard and Nadia took defensive posture, while Nick conjured the blob of fire. The lizardman looked like he was lost. Trying to figure out what just happened and when it came back to its senses, it saw flames incoming.

The eyes of the lizardman reflected a steady stream of fire approaching and it knew that dodging it completely at that point would be useless.

Bracing itself to be burnt, it crouched itself as near as the ground as possible, but that was futile effort.

Watching the lizardman enveloped by Nick's fire, Richard briefly thought. ''Maybe I should try to reduce my stupid jokes when around Nick, I don't wish to be targeted by that...''

''Nice, first the skill and now level up! It should be dead now.'' Nick informed the team about the system notification and stopped casting his spell.

The group approached the charred remains of the lizardman, carefully observing the surroundings for possible enemies and dropped loot.

''Nothing here that resembles skill stones or the like. Our haul this time was one spear while the other spear was destroyed by the fire. If you want the spear, you can have it Richard.'' Nick summarized the loot.

Richard took the spear joyfully, attaching it next to Curtain-kun strapped on his backpack and told the team his conjecture.

''The lizardmen seemed to come from underground, so I think there should be an underground dungeon somewhere nearby. Let's do carpet search over the nearby area and see if we can find anything.''

Agreeing to Richard's plan, the group split evenly in line. They agreed that with 5 meters distance between themselves it should be the safest and most reliable way to find anything hidden.

Humming some old songs Richard searched with Nadia and Nick for a while without finding anything out of the ordinary.

Only after 10 minutes something happened.

''Hey! I found staircases here!'' Nick yelled in an excited manner, to which Richard and Nadia started to expectly move towards him.

''Stone staircases that seem to stretch for at least 30 meters, should not be the work of men. I think it's highly likely that this is an dungeon.'' Nadia analyzed after some though.

Nodding their heads, seemingly coming to agreement without speaking they started grabbing flash lights from their backpacks. Descending the staircase carefully, in fear of ambush they maintained proper formation.

''Look! There is tunnel and light coming from there.''

''Be careful, we don't know what is in there. Maintain vigilance.''

Entering the tunnel, what came before them was a hall ten meters tall and 20 meters wide. In the middle of the hall were two stone arcs with mysterious inscriptions and between the arcs there was a circle of light.

The portal itself was like a mirror, but it did not reflect back Richard and the group. What it showed was a whole new area: Swamp with prehistoric looking trees.

In front of the portal was a marble pedestal, with a large handprint shaped dent in it.

''I feel like we are in the filming set of Spacegate SG-1, the pedestal is obviously meant to put our hand in it. Volunteers?'' Richard jokingly analyzed the situation and asked if either Nadia or Nick wanted to try putting hand on the pedestal.

''No takers? I guess I'll have to do it myself.''

Placing his hand on the pedestal he heard a familiar system ding.

Dungeon discovered: Temple of the dragonsworn Discovery reward: +1 spirit [ 9 → 10 ]

''Ladies and gentlemen, we have found our first dungeon.''