To the south within the city of Chorrol of the Kasnia grand duchy there sat a small group of Five adventurers discussing future dungeon expeditions inside a cramped room in the local adventurers guild, after their return from the underground dwarven kingdom found in the center of the mountain range that splits the continent into two. With new gear forged by the dwarves using money from ill gotten gains, something common for this group. They were able to advance to A rank, usually, this would be quite the achievement with the very limited amount of people ever making it to A rank. Most die before they ever reaching B rank or quit due to injury or just stay around C rank, doing safer missions more frequently while spending most of their time drinking in taverns or at brothels. The A rank these adventurers obtained was not gained through skill but solely due to the fine craftsmanship and runic magics the dwarves make their lives goal to perfect.
The adventurers consisted of a tank, warrior, cleric, mage, and rogue with their own respective roles, the tank holds the front line to protect the cleric and mage. While being protected by the tank the cleric's job is toward undead heal allies and be aware of any fluctuations of mana in the area. The mage will focus on doing as much damage to as many enemies as possible while being an encyclopedia on magical creatures and traps or anything that may be relevant. He also controls most of the magic consumables the party uses. The warrior will act as a secondary tank if needed but most of the time he will focus on killing and wounding anything too big for an area of effect magic to kill immediately, giving time for the rogue or mage to do damage. The rogue’s job is the easiest while being the most difficult to do well while traveling he must detect traps or hiding predators while keeping an eye out for any hidden treasures. Most rogues will be experienced herbalists and have enough alchemy knowledge to make a few potions. He’ll switch roles during combat between a finisher, flanker or an archer depending on the situation. When a sizeable creature becomes crippled he will use his extensive knowledge of anatomy to fatally wound the enemy, precision and knowledge is often required on enemies with such large armored bodies where simple slashing of a warrior won't cut it. If he decides that the enemy won’t go down easily he will flank them, often using poison powders on large groups or dealing directly with magic casters, this is particularity effective against human adversaries. Lastly, when the enemy has ranged attackers such as archers and mages he will use his bow to take down any threats to the healer and mage.
As they were arguing about which dungeon they should dive into an unfamiliar rogue entered the guild and asked for a private room. With no private rooms available the receptionist asked if they could share the room the A ranked adventurers were in to which they agreed thinking that a distraction would be good at this point. The rogue looked displeased at having to share a room but after learning they were A ranked adventurers like himself he dismissed the idea that they would be greedy people unlike himself especially with the expensive gear they were wearing. Once the receptionist sat down with the rogue on the shabby chairs he began discussing the reward for finding a new dungeon which immediately perked the group of adventurers ears up. After confirming the location of the dungeon on several maps the rogue left the guild waiting for the information to be confirmed to receive his payment, the adventurers begun to discuss their plans again only for the mage to stop them midway saying “shh quite for a moment, if this dungeon is undiscovered right now that means they won't be any guards at the entrance to see if the dungeon collapses who can identify who destroyed the dungeon”
“so,” the tank asked blankly as he leaned back in the chair that is screeching in protest at having a large man In full armor on top of it abusing its proper use.
“well don't you know dungeon cores are the purest of mana stones” the mage replied
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“so, you cant sell dungeon cores in any country without being labeled as traitors and being hunted down and hung, Most rulers don’t appreciate silly little adventurers killing their gold mines even if said gold mines kill large amounts of people to be harvested” said the tank while frowning at the prospect of being a fugitive.
“SO” the mage replied in frustration “IF there are no guards to identify who captured the dungeon then who will know who did it, Do you remember when I fenced the last items we “found” well that person happens to be in the market for a dungeon core” he said while becoming more excited by each word that came out of his own mouth.
After discussing it for a few minuted they all got their gear ready for travel, not willing to waste time because the more time they wasted the less time they would have to capture the dungeon. They bought the needed supplies and signed up for a quest near the unconfirmed dungeon that would not make the supplies they were getting or the time they would take away suspicious with ease of experience. Setting off before the sun rose allowed them to leave the city with almost no one seeing them leave bar a few slum dwellers near the south gate where all the poor lived and the guards were laxer or just plain corrupt.
Travel was relatively relaxed, with the rogue scouting ahead with his keen senses he was able to steer the group clear of any merchants or bandits that may get in the way of their task, only a few wolves slowed the journey, adding their pelts to the adventurer's wagon. When they arrived at the mountain of their destination they had to ditch the horses and wagon leaving them tied in a grove of trees camouflaged with a few poisons around it to keep wildlife away from it.
Finding the dungeon took a little longer than expected because the entrance was just some small hole in the ground about the size of the tanks shield with miasma leaking out, a telltale sign of a dungeon. When they entered they found themselves in a deep jungle area with enough light to make their torches pointless to the delight of the rogue at not having to strain his eyes to see in the dark.
They began to make their way in the dungeon slowly because of the difficult terrain, they could not take two steps in any direction without running into another plant and the mud on the ground made watching your footing a requirement to not falling flat on your face. After trudging through mud for what seemed like hours they finally found a patch of dry ground and decided to rest. While eating they complained that this dungeons first floor is way too long and that they haven't even been able to kill anything yet which they found suspicious as they started to wonder if this was even a dungeon if it had no monsters.
The group started to move again following the small device the mage carried directing them to the core, but after moving through a particularly dense area of trees and bushes the rogue suddenly gave out a warning “There is something watching us, be careful” then the rest of the group tightened their formation protecting the weaker members. Before they could enclose the cleric behind the warrior the trees moved and something large and black lunged at the healer. Before he could move his head was already crushed beneath the powerful jaws of the panther, but instead of the cleric being shoved to the ground and torn apart by vicious claws his body just vanished leaving the panther to sail through the air uselessly, confused at what happened to its prey. The adventurer's images suddenly appeared several meters ahead of where they were a moment ago, the illusion the light mage created losing its effect when he began to cast another spell.
The panther started to run to the cover of the jungle but had several arrows lodge themselves into her hind legs slowing her greatly. Just as she was about to make it to safety with a few more wounds to show for her hunt, a fireball almost the size of the panther itself a meter and a half wide engulfed her, the impact threw her several meters into the underbrush slamming her into a tree leaving a charred corpse of a once proud predator behind provoking a response from the rogue “you didn’t need to cook the thing yet, the hide on that thing would go for quite a lot you know”
The mage replied back “we are here for the core we cant be slowed down by the extra weight, we will make enough money to retire if we complete this job successfully”. Unknown to them the master of this domain could understand them perfectly as it watched them announce their own demise.