It was a giant cavern.
The opening room anyway. There was a group of five first years, three men and two women, resting on the dungeon wall. There was an older woman with them, her gray hair and aged skin put her at least over seventy.
I could hear noises coming from the four tunnels that led out of the cavern. I looked at Justia. "You wouldn’t happen to know the way to the boss room?”
The brunette shook her head. "I’m not even sure that this is the same floor I was on.” She let out a nervous breath. "We were just walking around, they didn’t take us to the boss room.”
Ether pointed at the teacher. "Maybe they have a map, or know the way.”
I motioned. "Be my guest.”
The snow-white tank shook her head and walked over to the teacher. "Hello.” She waved. "I’m Ether Klix, and this is my party. We’re level two, but this is our first time in this dungeon. You wouldn’t happen to know the way to the boss room?”
The older woman glared at us. "The Dispatchers have a group of level twos and want to flaunt it in my face?” She narrowed her eyes. "You can go back and tell Jemni that I could have level two as well if they’d give me some…” She stopped. "Klix? What is a Mundane from Klix doing here?”
Ether swallowed. "We’re from the Cathedral, Ma’am.”
The teacher looked at each of us. "You’re really not from the Dispatchers, then.” She shook her head. "What’s a group from the Cathedral doing out here?”
Ether pointed at our Healer. "That’s Justia Publian. We doubled up on our time in the dungeon and leveled up a week ahead of schedule.” The white-haired woman smiled. "So they let us have some family time if we put in some time on the second floors of the dungeons here.”
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“Publian?” The woman looked at Justia. "I see the resemblance now.” She turned back to Ether. "We’ve got three of us down here looking after twenty-six of these newbies.”
The students all flinched as she glared at them.
“Mundanes, every one of them. You’d think they’d be in better shape, but these needed a break.”
Unlike our first trip into the dungeon, they all had gear, though it looked well used, probably from a general use storeroom. I found myself a little jealous, but none of them were wearing anything any better than what we had on. Their weapons were also very basic. Two had swords, one had a spear, and two had wooden shields. It wasn’t their gear that I found myself being jealous of, it was that they had some when they started out.
“I’m sure you’ll turn them into fine Adventurers.” Ether smiled
“You have more faith in this lot than I do.” She eyed them. "I’ve never seen a lot that couldn’t stay on their feet for three hours!” She shook her head. "I swear, these kids get softer every year.”
Ether tried to pivot the question. "You wouldn’t happen to have a map so we can get to the boss room and stay out of the way of the training students?”
“I’m sure there are maps around here somewhere, but they’re all back at the Hub.” She shook her head. "When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you start memorizing everything.” The teacher looked up at the ceiling. "Every year, start off at the first floor and crawl our way to hopefully beat the fifth floor, then hand them off and start here all over again."
She turned back to Ether and pointed at the tunnel to the north east. "Follow that one and stay close to the dungeon wall. You’ll hit a few rooms, and it’s not the most direct route, but it’s the easiest way to not get lost.”
“Thank you so much for your time.” Ether gave her a small bow. "I hope you have a good rest of your day.” The white-haired Tank turned to us. "Let’s go clear the boss so we don’t get in their way any more than we already have.”
“Did you hear that? They’re already level two and you’re laying around on your rears. Get up! We’re going back in.” The teacher shooed them. "Come on! Don’t make me tell you twice!”