The Eternal Ruins.
A grand name for a grand dungeon. It would all be grand if not for the fact that it was all empty. Being close to the city of education the dungeon was quickly depleted of resources. The problem with the ruins lay in its ability to renew its resources. Dungeons are very special things to kingdoms. Unlike mines or queries, dungeons regrow their resources. You can not strip a dungeon or exhaust its supply, for there is a force that will forever create more.
It is for this reason that almost every country had many laws tailored to the protection of the dungeons and its core.
And so we come back to the problem with the Eternal Ruins. The harvest of this massive dungeon is small, unimportant and considering the difficulty of level 2 monsters that started on the third floor, it was not worth exploring.
“You do realize that level 2 monsters require a coordinated team, right?” a young boy’s voice echoed behind Ravina as she stepped into the Eternal Ruins. She turned to glance at him. He wore shoddy clothes—a simple shirt and flexible shorts—and carried a massive pack, larger than himself. It was a loan from the guild, a common tool but vital tool for porters. The Aposkevón Bag negated the weight of the items stored inside.
“It’s fine, Ralf,” Ravina repeated for the umpteenth time. She had hired the boy so she could focus on her real purpose. While the Eternal Ruins were notorious for being monster-infested with little else of value, Ravina’s interest lay beyond gathering materials for her magic studies. Ohh and how sick and tired was she of magical studies. All year, all year they did nothing but talk about the mechanics behind magic. The man behind the curtain was certainly way more boring than the show he put on.
She craved practicality. An empty dungeon teeming with monsters to practice on was exactly what she needed. Still she had two daggers and fine leather armor. Wrapped in a fine purple clock she looked ever the part of an adventurer from a fairy tail. Yet, this was her reality. As such she needed to be practical. Magic would be a secondary objective for now. Ravina would focus on the top floor, testing her skills and gauging the dungeon's potential. If she couldn't effectively use her magic, she would move on to another dungeon and resign herself to the monotony of distant magic studies once more.
It felt like staring at a locked door while holding a key still being shaped. Behind that door lay all the wealth in the world, yet all she could do was learn how to shape the key, never to touch the treasure.
“Lady, I don't know if you understand. Level 2 monsters cannot be handled alone!” Gods damn it, he was insistent.
“Then you could return,” she said, rubbing the ache from her head. “I won't report it.”
“N-nonsense!” the kid stammered. “If I were to return without you, it could only be due to your death!”
“That’s… not true,” Ravina tried to reason, but the boy was persistent.
“If a porter abandons the party, they won’t be hired again.”
“Nonsense,” Ravina insisted. “The guild does not have such a stipulation.”
However, Ralf was adamant. “The guild does not control everything,” he revealed. “What adventurer wants to bring someone with them after they abandon another?” It made some sense.
“Then stop complaining,” Ravina begged. “Besides, I plan on staying on the first floor anyway. I have some training, so I should be able to handle a level one monster. Now either quiet down or leave.” With that, Ravina entered the massive crack in the mountain. The cave opened up expansively, supported by what appeared to be man-made pillars and stone structures. The eeriest part was the lit torches that illuminated the dungeon just enough—neither too bright nor too dark.
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It didn't take long for them to encounter their first monster. “W-what is that doing here!” the young boy exclaimed in fear as he saw the humanoid figure. Ravina was shaken only by the kid's lack of confidence. He was supposed to be a seasoned porter, but even large green men were too much for children.
The creature before them was massive, standing eight feet tall with the physique of a bodybuilder. Oddly enough, it wore ragged leather clothes that seemed sturdier than the armor she had bought. Its head seemed carved from stone rather than organic, demonic at first glance, confirmed by its beady black eyes and white, sharp teeth protruding from its closed, blackened mouth.
Sure, it looked terrifying, but it was exactly what Ravina was looking for—a monster to use as a test subject. Its strong, imposing body made Ravina happy. It seemed to be the perfect specimen for her experiments.
Even if the dungeon was notorious for its high monster density, this was precisely the kind of challenge she had hoped to find. She was about to say something to calm the kid down when she locked eyes with the monster. That single glance caused her heart to still. In that one moment of a skipped beat, her blood ran cold, as if there was no warmth to be found in all the world. She took a step back, her legs trembling as her heart regained its beat, quickening as her breaths became heavy and uneven.
“Lady, we need to run!” the boy's shout did little to ease her fear, but it was grounding all the same. “That's a poisoned Ögar! What's a level three beast doing on the first floor?”
“Level three!?” her words burned in her throat as she spoke out her surprise. Luckily for the pair, the monster was satisfied with walking toward its prey, never looking away from Ravina’s eyes. It was over. There was no way anyone could come out of a fight with such a monster and walk away. “F-fire,” her words were broken, uneven, and unsteady. She could barely remember the formula that was hammered into their heads.
It was the easiest of formulas; most red spells were. Yet she couldn’t even recall it as the monster approached. It was close, closer now, and closer still. “N-no!” In a final desperate wave, Ravina raised a hand. “Fireball!” she screamed. Unfortunately, the spell wasn’t woven. Instead of a ball of fire, a mist of heat rose from her hand and flew to the Ögar. Yet the warmth of the spell reached even Ravina as it flew away. There was a moment of calm as she watched the orange-red mist fill the gap between her and the monster.
In the beat of a heart, she knew it was not good, not even as a distraction. But she wouldn’t be able to cast another spell. It was only a few steps away. If only she could control the spell, but it was already released. Such a thing would not be possible… and yet… her eyes narrowed as she closed her hand. She felt a pull of something leave her chest, and when she squeezed her hand closed, the mist before her condensed into a thin fire-red blade, not even a fingernail thick. With the flames cleared out of the way, she saw the bemused expression on the monster. It raised a hand to swat the spell away, but somehow it continued, slicing through the hand and giving the demon a taste of its own fear. Then it cut through the monster, and its head fell to the floor before the body even understood that it was dead.
The whole thing lasted between a few beats of a heart. Ravina collapsed to the floor before the body of the monster. Her numb hands reached up to her neck as it slowly dawned on her what just happened. “Holy shit, lady!” the boy's voice called out to her, farther than he had been before. He stepped back into the dungeon, making his way over to her. “I ain’t never seen anything like that before. Hey, you okay?”
She felt his hand reach out to her and swatted it away on instinct alone. “Don’t,” she coughed, giving herself some time to collect her thoughts. “Set up camp.”
“What, so soon?” he asked, a lot more confident now that he knew his employer could one-shot a high-ranking monster. If only he knew the truth, then perhaps he would insist they return right away.
“Just do it,” she said, failing to keep her voice steady.
The boy sighed. “Alright,” he turned around to find a good place to pitch the cave tents. “It’s going to be a long dive, isn’t it,” he complained as he went about his work.
As for Ravina, she just needed some time to calm down. Time to think. She pushed her hands in front of her face, holding the one that not only cast but manipulated the spell. “What was that?” she wondered aloud. She eventually shook her head. “I need a shower,” she muttered. “And fine wine.” The boy was right; it would be a long dive, but at least she had brought a few extra pairs of clean underwear.