Ran Dewbleeder (Human) POV
Ran Dewbleeder was an experienced adventurer of 60 years, kept youthful by his relatively swift advancement into the Novice realm. As magic users, both of the warrior and mage variety, increase their realm of expertise- their bodies begin to adapt even more to magic and changes in many beneficial ways. When Ran Dewbleeder advanced to the Novice realm, just like any typical human Novice magic user, his bodily systems were flooded with enough magic to extend his lifespan from the 150 years of the Apprentice realm to 300 years. Only now, faced directly with death so close to the eve of his adoption of the little orphan girl, Grace, did he regret rashly intruding on an unknown place, filled with potential dangers. He obviously knew better than to do so, but was caught up in the surprise of the structures' mysterious appearance at the peak of the Sruhl mountain and was driven by a sense of greed, as he wanted to be the first to lay eyes on its treasures.
"Curse my rotten luck!" Ran swore, as he recovered from his daze and rolled across the floor. Not even a second later the dwarf statue golem's huge hammer smashed into the spot he had just occupied with tens of thousands of kilos of force (10^4 kg). Ran Dewbleeder paled in fright. He could only muster a fraction of that force, with his strength of a few thousand kilos (10^3kg).
"I have to get out of here alive! I have a daughter to live for," Ran shouted out as he sprinted for the nearby entrance. Unfortunately, a well coordinated magic blast from the statue golem of the robed human mage prevented him from moving forward very far.
"****," Ran swore emphatically, as he decided to get rid of the statue golem of the human mage first. He agilely dodged another hammer strike from the dwarf statue golem behind himself and his large physique cycled his magic even more fiercely than before.
"Lightning burst!" Ran shouted, as a large quantity of his magic concentrated on his legs. His flesh then rippled, his powerful muscles tearing from the resulting force, as Ran Dewbleeder shot forward like a human canon towards the human mage statue golem. With this self created technique, Ran Dewbleeder was able to strike out with as much as ten times his usual amount of strength and he reached the level of tens of thousands of kilos (10^3 kg) from his typical force of several thousand kilos (10^4 kg) easily.
Though Ran Dewbleeder anticipated sending the human mage statue golem flying with that level of force, he miscalculated one thing. Despite being an experienced adventurer, Ran Dewbleeder mostly fought with humans, vicious beasts, and the occasional rare magical creature. Thus, he was completely ignorant as to the species of monster that he was currently facing, a golem. The golem species of the monster race were renowned for their physical defense! These particular statue golems were even particularly heavy as they had their mass measured in millions of kilos (10^6 kg). Predictably, when Ran Dewbleeder's magic infused steel sword slashed out at the human mage statue golem's neck- all he managed to do was chip its hard surface! All that force simply resulted in a small wound to its neck region...
"What kind of monster are you!?" Ran exclaimed in shock, when he saw the small wound and witnessed how the statue golem was merely forced to take a few steps back to ablate the force of his charge.
Those were the last words Ran Dewbleeder ever uttered, as his head was smashed to a pulp by the disproportionately fast dwarf statue golem that had quickly followed his tail. Had Ran Dewbleeder been given a few more seconds to allow his blessing of water to take effect and heal his legs and muscles to working order perhaps he would have survived long enough to reevaluate his opponents and come up with another strategy for dodging past them to get at the exit of the grand temple, that was only a hundred meters away. Of course, who knew if Ran Dewbleeder would have gotten his head blasted off by magic in his attempt to flash across that distance or if he would have survived the tile traps that had laid between him and the exit, that he was ignorant of? It was safe to say that Ran Dewbleeder was destined to die in the grand temple dungeon from the moment he set foot through its gate.
The statue golems returned slowly to their pedestals and froze in their original positions as though they had never moved. Other than the smear of drying blood that caked the bottom of the dwarf statue golem's huge hammer, the chip on the human mage statue golem's neck, and the slight wisp of ozone smell that emitted from the gnarled staff, perhaps on would even be convinced that nothing had taken place and that they were truly nothing more than harmless decorations. The pooling blood and gore from Ran Dewbleeder's corpse disappeared along with the dead body itself as the dungeon absorbed it to fuel its own growth. All traces of the upbeat adventurer had been cleaned away and silence resumed in the grand temple's boundary once more.
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Grace (Human) POV
Days passed by one by one and yet Ran Dewbleeder did not come back home. Grace, who was excited the first day as she waited for his return, anticipating her first sword lesson with joy. When Ran Dewbleeder did not return home the first day, Grace was suspicious.
"You just don't want to teach me how to use the sword, right!? Well, jokes on you..." Grace angrily muttered as she fell asleep on the guest bed that first night.
But, it soon became clear to Grace that something had gone terribly wrong and she was anxious to find Ran Dewbleeder. Being young, she knew that she should not go into the terrifying forest alone and she ran around Wimborne trying to convince others Ran Dewbleeder was in danger and that they needed to arrange a search party to search for her dear older friend. It was a shame that none of the villagers believed her, even including Ran's own friends. After all, Ran Dewbleeder often left for long periods at a time and even if he went missing, what were the weak villagers who could not even face up against Apprentice level opponents supposed to do about it? Frankly, even Grace herself only thought that he was in danger due to her sharp intuition. Otherwise, Grace would have figured that Ran Dewbleeder had simply gotten caught up in something again as usual and would return within the week.
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"Fine! If none of them will believe me or help me, then I will find him myself!" Grace angrily muttered to herself on the fourth day that Ran Dewbleeder was gone, grabbing one of his cloaks from his house and heading off into the woods by herself. The village orphanage did not note her absence due to her habit of going off into various corners of Wimborne to explore and play quite frequently. Besides, in a small town like Wimborne where everyone knew each other, they thought that Grace could hardly get lost and the orphanage ladies merely scolded her for her naughty behavior and extended absences whenever they got a chance.
"I will make it a real live adventure! A quest to save Ran," Grace cheerfully said as she fearlessly ran off into the surrounding forest.
Several hours later, the little girl was lost and shivering in the forest and night was falling fast. Going up the mountain was easy for Grace, but avoiding everything in the forest was not. Luckily her blessing of fire could, among other things, allow her to sense nearby heat signatures and her frequent outings in the forest area right outside of Wimborne, that she had with Ran, taught her how to conceal her presence. Grace could even hunt, using the small dagger that she was gifted by Ran for her last birthday, so she probably would not starve in the long run.
"Stupid forest! Where is the adventure in this?" Grace whispered in the dark. She rested beside a tree as she continued her trek up the mountain. A few minutes later she broke past the treeline and witnessed the sight of the dungeon in the clearing on the mountain peak.
"Wow!" Grace said excitedly, at the majestic view. After her awe had run dry minutes later, she realized that Ran had never mentioned such a thing being on the mountain peak when he narrated his daily treks and adventures before.
"Suspicious cloud, where are you hiding Ran!" Grace said angrily, puffing her small cheeks. She was forced to spend the night in the forest so she picked a tree and climbed it, exhausting the last of her seemingly infinite energy, before falling asleep.
"Huh? What's going on!?" Grace shouted the next morning in shock. She was being carried away by carriage-sized dire wolves, by the scruff of her cloak, to an unknown destination. Struggling was pointless, so Grace bizarrely went with the flow instead. It was unknown how the situation came about or why Grace had not woken up the whole time while it was taking place...
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Lario Adventurers Guild, Random Adventurer POV
'Normal' warrior and adventurer Wolly P. looked at the adventurers guild's request board as he searched for a proper quest to make some cash. Bounty poster, herb gathering request, horse taming job, beast hide request, etc.- the things on the request board were varied and often strange and dangerous tasks. Scanning the request board for any tasks that he was interested in, he saw a particularly intriguing request near the center of the board. 'Investigate mysterious appearance of unidentified object on the peak of Sruhl's horn mountain. Will be paid handsomely if either of two missing persons, Grace or Ran Dewbleeder are found within- dead or alive' went the request on the bulletin board. Two pictures of a cute little redhead girl and an imposing blue-eyed man with blue-tinged black hair were drawn quite realistically below. The request was tagged as a C ranked mission.
In the adventure guild requests were evaluated by an experienced board of retired adventurers and given an appropriate universal ranking from the legendary S and the mythical X ranked missions down to the lowest and easiest F-ranked mission. F-ranked missions could be done by anyone registered by the Adventure guild. E-ranked missions could be done by Apprentice realm Adventurers. D-ranked missions could be done by Novice realm Adventurers. C-ranked missions could be done by Adept realm Adventurers. B-ranked missions could be done by Master realm Adventurers. A-ranked missions could be done by Archmage/Hero/Champion realm Adventurers. S-ranked missions could be done by Sacred realm Adventurers. And finally, X-ranked missions could be done by Demigod realm Adventurers.
Wolly P. took down a copy of the request from the bulletin board as he was stunned by its difficulty level. C-ranked Adept realm adventurers were exceedingly rare in all of Ocrium, even in the capital city of Lario. Most adventurers in the country were normal F-ranked adventurers or E-ranked Apprentice realm adventurers, with only a minority of elites being higher ranked than that. Even the reclusive guild master herself was only a C-ranked Adept warrior, so how could such a high ranked mission be casually posted on the bulletin board!?
"Miss Catherine!" Wolly P. called out to the receptionist by the door, as he walked to her, the request in hand. Like most adventurers in the guild he was both acquainted with and friendly towards the pretty, young receptionists of his local adventurers guild.
"Do you know what this mission is about? Who posted this?" Wolly P. asked curiously.
"That mission is much too high ranked for you Mr. P. I do believe you are only qualified to take F-ranked missions," Catherine said politely, with a small smile, to a somewhat embarrassed Wolly P.
"I am well aware of that Miss Catherine. I just want to know what this about, is all. It's pretty unusual to see a mission like this, even in the capital city, you know," Wolly P. said with a slight grimace.
"That particular request was handed in this morning, given by a few folk from a certain mountain village called Wimborne. I hear that the man mentioned in that mission was a D-ranked Novice realm adventurer!" Catherine said with a slight flush on her face, as she quietly gossiped.
"D-ranked!?" Wolly P. said with awe.
"Indeed. That is why it is ranked so highly. If a D-ranked adventurer went missing due to that circumstance then clearly adventurers of at least the C rank will be needed," Catherine informed Wolly P.
"I see! Thank you Miss Catherine," Wolly P. said, to which Catherine merely smiled. Wolly P. returned the copy of the request to the bulletin board in short order as if his pants was on fire, nervous sweat could clearly be seen dotting his brows. While Wolly P. was not foolish enough to even consider taking a C-ranked mission, assuming he was allowed (which he wasn't), he had been harboring thoughts of tagging along behind the adventurer or adventurer team that took on the said mission to check out the sights.
"No way am I risking my hide to check this out, not even from a distance," Wolly P. sagely nodded to himself. He grabbed a typical F-ranked herb gathering request and put the intriguing mission out of his mind. Nearby, a cloaked eavesdropping adventurer had their interest perked and walked calmly up to the board beside Wolly P. The stranger grabbed a copy of the C-ranked mission and left, with Wolly P. staring after their mysterous cloaked figure.
"Yup, I am surely at least smarter than that poor son of a *****. There are truly all kinds of suicidal weirdos out there," Wolly P. quietly said to himself, with a sneer. He left the adventurers guild immediately, returning to his banal life as a low ranked adventurer. Regardless of what else was going down around him, he still had to make a living after all.