Dungeons, a type of mining or harvesting environment that was magically created from the overabundant mana particles in the surroundings. These mana particles would oftentimes create a sort of natural formation that would trap monsters inside its vicinity. The monsters inside these formations known as dungeons, gain some basic intelligence due to the high concentration of mana in the environment.

Thus it became known that monsters inside dungeons tend to group together in small or large communities. These communities would often interact with other different monster communities to wage war, share resources, and many other not yet known interactions. The overabundance of mana would also tend to create various types of environments inside a dungeon that would suit the living conditions of the monsters inside each formation.

There are also mainly 2 classifications of dungeons, the area class, and the floor class and then there are the 3 subtypes. The first sub-type, namely, the Cave-type dungeon, these dungeons are the most widely known dungeons on every continent. The Angla Public Dungeon was considered a cave-type dungeon and it fell into the second category of dungeons.

The second sub-type, an Ocean-type dungeon, these dungeons are mostly found inside large bodies of water. It could be inside a lake, or an underground reservoir or river channel.

But, the places to find these types of dungeons are namely, inside the oceans of Alterna. Ocean-type dungeons were the most abundant of dungeons on Alterna. There was an ocean-type dungeon close to the Oceanic Kingdom of Neftersea called the Unending Maelstrom. It was considered a SSS-class dungeon that few would dare explore. It was also one of the rarer field-class ocean-type dungeons.

Then lastly, there was the Forest-type dungeon. These dungeons, like in its name, would be found in ancient heavily forested areas. Not all high-mana forests would become dungeons and only a very rare amount would turn into one. These types of dungeons were the rarest of dungeons and it's hard to believe, but the forest-type dungeons encapsulated both field-class and floor-class dungeons.

An adventurer that came across such a dungeon could choose to proceed further into the dungeon's area or go deep into the dungeon's upper or lower floors. And currently, our cute little foxkin is exploring this type of dungeon with her party.

The Great Erlutian Forest, it was an ancient forest that withstood the test of time. This forest had witnessed the Great Collapse of the super-continent Mespotheim. It was a large super ancient forest that's been around for thousands of years. The roots of the trees inside the forest reached deep into the ground and the branches and treetops reached high into the sky.

Inside the 5th area of the Great Erlutian Forest, Lucia and her party were currently fighting against a bunch of Bloodwood Treants. These treants were large 5 meter tall blood-sucking monstrosities.

They had a high vitality level that even after cutting the monster into pieces it could quickly regenerate itself and continue fighting, to add to this was also the bloodsucking ability of these treants.

The ability would drain the blood out of its victims to heal itself or bolster its already large level of vitality. The Bloodwood Treants had an insatiable hunger for blood, so it would attack and pursue any creature that it has laid its eyes on. It would never stop its pursuit until it could fulfill its insatiable thirst for blood. Thus, they were hard to kill and also hard to escape from.

"Aery! Gale Storm! I'll follow it up with a Flare Storm!" Lucia commanded.

"Kay~"

A harpy girl said in response.

"Dell, Altris! You guys okay?" Lucia said while turning towards a pair of boys, a cat-kin and dwarf respectively, who were tanking and drawing the attention of 3 other Bloodwood Treants.

"We're good!!"

"Ouh!"

Lucia was currently drawing the attention of another Bloodwood Treant, she kept slashing apart the vines and branches that were smashing their way towards her, but to her dismay more just kept replacing them.

Once Aery finished their chant, Lucia backed off while pointing her Butterfly at the monster in front of her. The Gale and Flare Storm combined together and created a blazing tornado that spun around the Bloodwood Treant that they were fighting. The treant screamed in pain and collapsed down into a heap of charred firewood.

"Ack!"

"Oi! Dell!"

Dell had made a mistake and accidently turned his attention towards the girls' battle when the flaming tornado appeared. His lapse in attention had let a Bloodwood Treant's vine strike at his body, sending him tumbling away. The dwarf, Altris blocked the treant that was in pursuit of Dell, but it was a little too much for the young dwarf to handle alone since now he had to face 3 of them together.

"DELL!" A shorthaired cat-kin screamed anxiously. She began chanting a spell and waved her staff at the injured boy.

"Cure!"

A small light enveloped Dell's wounds and they immediately healed up. He quickly flipped back up and dashed towards Altris.

"Thanks, Mell!"

"Be careful next time, big brother!"

The cat-kin named Mell, was Dell's little twin sister. Unlike her brother who was a swordsman, she was a shaman that specialized in healing. Lucia quickly made her way towards Altris and Dell. She lured another one of the treants over to Aery and they used the same strategy once again and quickly felled the treant. The party did this 2 more times with the remaining treants and quickly ended the battle.

"PHEW! Man~ this is tiring... talk about a bad match up!" Dell complained while fanning himself. Next to him Altris was sitting down quietly with Mell treating his wounds.

"Thank you, Mell."

"No problem! Uhm... Lucia, Aery... do you need any treatment?" Mell said after fixing Altris up. She was currently scrutinizing the 2 girls who appeared to have no visible wounds.

"Nah, we're fine. Just a little tired." Lucia said.

"Hmmmppphhh...well, these monotonous battles are pretty boring once we keep using the same strats over and over again," Aery added while stretching her body.

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Lucia who was on the side smiled slightly. Although it would have been much easier if she just took care of them all, but then this assignment wouldn't be called a group assignment if she did so.

The Bloodwood Treants were only B-ranked monsters, so she didn't want to use her high-tiered spells on such small fry. Also, the assignment was there so that the students in class could experience what a dungeon was like. If she did everything it would take the fun and effort away from her classmates.

"Let's get going, you guys. The rest area should be just ahea–"

PING

"!" When she heard the chime, Lucia quickly brought her right arm up in a hurry. Her eyes widened in horror and she started paling.

"L-Lucia?" Mell softly asked when she saw the horror-stricken Lucia abruptly freeze mid-sentence.

"Lucia?" Aery said as she got close to the girl. She turned to look at the bracelet on her arm and saw that it had a very intricate runic array engraved all over it. There was also a glowing gem embedded in the middle of the bracelet and it was currently glowing orange. It was a deep orange color with faint traces of red in it. The gem was surprisingly beautiful that Aery couldn't help but gasp in amazement.

"What a beautiful bracelet! Hey Lucia~ who gave that to you, huh~?" Aery asked in a playful tone with one of her brows raised.

"A-Aery no! That's–" Mell tried to pull Aery back. She couldn't understand how this friend of hers couldn't read the mood.

Lucia's gaze immediately turned cold after her horrified expression faded. She turned towards her party and said with a forced smile, "Let's go, we'll head to the settlement."

Lucia then smacked her hand on the forest floor and a faint dark red wave of mana spread from her hand. She then stood up and looked towards a particular direction.

"It's over there. Hurry, let's go!"

"Eh? Lucia?"

"Uhm..."

"..."

Her party was bewildered at her sudden actions, but they couldn't do anything since the girl in question had already bolted towards the direction that they assumed was the direction of the forest dungeon's rest area.

The group could only follow in silence, along the way any monster that suddenly blocked their path was quickly cut down by the girl leading at the front. Even the earlier Treants were swiftly and cruelly blown to bits at the hands of the anxious foxkin. They bulldozed their way through, leaving behind a trail of corpses and scorched and frozen earth behind them. Not long after, they quickly arrived at the dungeon's rest area.

"...may I leave the report to you guys? I...I have somewhere I have to be..." Lucia said when they arrived at the entrance of the settlement.

"Sure! But... are you okay Lucia? You seem to be out of it." Mell asked worriedly.

"Yeah! You were just fine earlier!" Aery added with a frown.

"You have to tell us if you've got some sort of problem! Maybe we can help!" Dell said.

"..." The dwarf Altris only nodded. He had a clear look of concern in his eyes.

"I-It's okay... I'm sorry to leave you guys here... but it's an emergency!" Lucia said while giving a worried glance at the bracelet on her wrist.

"Then go! If it's an emergency then why're you still here? We can take care of the rest, so hurry on up to where you're supposed to be!" Altris said.

"...thank you," Lucia bowed and turned around. She quickly activated Elemental Burst and a dark red wave of mana rose from her body. Her change surprised the party behind her and then in the next instant she disappeared from her spot. The party only saw her when she was at a large distance away from them. She was speedily heading towards the exit of the forest dungeon.

"...I wonder what's up with her?" Aery asked while turning towards everyone else.

"She began acting strange when the gem on her bracelet turned orang all of a sudden," Mell replied. "It was green at first and every now and then Lucia would turn an eye towards the bracelet. It seems like it's something very important to her."

"Huh? You mean it wasn't always orange? That gem?"

"Well... yeah. I noticed the bracelet immediately since the engravings on it were beautiful and mystifying. You do know that my elective is on the study of runes."

"Oh..."

"So when the gem turned orange she began acting strangely? Could it be some sort of indicator then?" Altris asked while rubbing his chin.

"Most likely," Mell said. "There were plenty of runes that I didn't recognize, but there were 3 that I knew of. A mana force rune for keeping track of mana levels, a tracing rune for tracing the source of mana infused inside the gem, and a fortification rune to maintain the integrity and condition of the engraved runes and the bracelet."

"Well, those are the only recognizable runes! There were plenty more that I've never even seen! Like the rune that changed the color of the gem or the rune that caused that chiming noise! Or even that large runic array engraved all over the bracelet! I'm pretty sure it isn't recorded anywhere inside our reference books or any book inside the academy for that matter!" Mell said in excitement.

"Well... since there's a mana force rune and a tracing rune... doesn't it mean that Lucia's going to go and save someone then?" Dell ignorantly added, though he was very close to the truth.

"Hah? What're you talking about, stupid brother?" Mell said with scornful look on her face.

"Just saying, I mean... why else would she just rush off like that. Also you said there's a rune that changes the gem's color right? If green was a safe color, then wouldn't orange be a danger color?" Dell said, sharing his deduction.

Altris' eyes widened a bit and an understanding look slowly crept up on his face.

"Wow... I didn't expect my stupid brother would say something so smart..."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Dell asked back, he then stopped to change the subject, "Well... let's say what I'm saying is true... then doesn't that mean the person that Lucia's going to rescue must be someone weaker than us right?"