Calista looked up at the dungeon before her with a steady resolve. Her party had recently been hired on to map this dungeon, but some of their initial research had turned up some major concerns. However, there were only so many dungeons in their kingdom at a low enough level for her party to take on and her party wanted to maintain their reputation. They had worked far too hard to get their name out into the world and ensure they were one of the first ones to be called when a low-level dungeon needed to be mapped out.
When it came to the mapping of a dungeon, it required a party that had someone with the navigator class. Her own class was that of a summoner, but her brother, Bellar, had been fortunate to get the all too rare class they needed for a job such as this one. However, they were hardly a party of two, instead they were a larger party with five members.
"Alright, remember everyone, we need to take this slow and steady. The challenge rooms will be locked until we successfully complete the challenges and the [Monsters] have a tendency to stampede. We only have so many potions with us and I don't want anyone to get injured from something that can be avoided. Am I clear?"
That was Cassia, their Half-Giant guardian tank that acted as their team leader. Despite their team having more men than women, Cassia was a strong and competent leader that everyone confidently followed. Calista nodded in agreement alongside the others and they entered the dungeon.
"There don't seem to be any [Traps] in this hallway."
Bellarth noted. His mapping skill gave him a mental image of the dungeon based on proximity. As they continued along, it would continue to update in real-time, allowing him to get a feel for the dungeon. As he was only a C-rank, the same as her, he only had a few skills. He has to manually practice his map drawing skills and carries parchment and ink in a magic bag at his side. However, once he has a completed map, one of his skills allows him to duplicate the drawing onto a clean piece of parchment.
Calista knew quite well that Bellarth kept a copy of every dungeon map he had ever drawn, even going so far as to date them and name them. It made it easier to see how a dungeon evolved over time and they could more easily plan their next attack on the dungeon based on the observed behavior of the Dungeon Master. Meanwhile, they could produce a copy of the map at a moment's notice whenever they were lucky enough to make a sale.
The dungeon accords actually made it so that an official team was only allowed to come through to map out a dungeon once a year at most. That meant it was a valuable opportunity to be chosen to be the official map maker for a dungeon by the adventurers' guild. The guild was actually the primary customer base for map makers, but there were also cases where the nobles, merchants, or richer adventurers would buy a map as well.
"We'll go to the right first since that way is supposed to be inn side. We can scope the area out and confirm there aren't any [Traps] and stay the night while we map out the area. Then, in the morning, we will start on the other half of the dungeon."
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Cassia stated. She took point as they cautiously continued forward. Their team wasn't really specialized for combat as much as defense. Their other party members included Orik, a ranger, who had a [Trap] detection skill, [Trap] creation skill, and weapon skills for using a variety of ranged weapons and daggers. He carried around poisons and acids for coating stone and crossbolts to use with his slingshot, blowdart gun, and crossbow. That allowed him to have plenty of versatility so he could handle [Monsters] regardless of whether they were weak to blunt weapons, sharp weapons, poisons, acids, or anything else.
Then there was Aramis, a telepath with alchemy training, who was skilled at using a long staff and in hand-to-hand martial arts. His telepathy skills allowed for long-distance communication, which was useful if they got separated in the dungeon. The class was considered as rare as the navigator class, but was considered one of the less useful support classes. If it wasn't for being raised by an alchemist, allowing him to act as a substitute healer through the use of potions and medical knowledge, and his combat training, he likely wouldn't even be in a party. In fact, most telepaths tended to work for the adventurers' guild or nobles and never entered a dungeon their whole lives.
Her brother suffered from a similar predicament when it came to the need to supplement his class skills with training with a weapon. However, her brother went with more of a hybrid build than Aramis. Bellarth wore sturdy steel armor built with agility in mind while using a bow and arrows to attack from a distance. Since his map-making skills were the most important part of his role in their party, it was more important that his defense was taken care of and that he could attack from a safe distance away than for him to be able to do any significant damage in combat.
Their team leader was, perhaps, the most suitable for being in a dungeon. She not only had a guardian class, but she was also skilled at using a mace. Cassia was the highest rank in their part, besides herself, at B-rank. Since the higher the rank, the more skills one had access to, their team leader had many useful ones that were very useful for turning the tide in battle. There was sanctuary, a skill used to create a magic bubble that could heal allies and block attacks from enemies. Meanwhile, noble sacrifice would allow her to swap places with an ally to absorb and attack. Then there was divine leash, which was useful for holding aggro as it would allow her to use a magical chain to pull enemies to her. Of course, she had other skills as well, but those three were the most important.
As for Calista, she couldn't help but feel inferior compared to her other party members. Most summoners tended to have skills that focused on their offensive abilities. However, she only had one skill like that, which allowed her to summon a golem using mana. Her other two main skills were more domestic in nature with names like grand feast and oasis, which allowed her to create a meal or shelter from mana. Usually, the surroundings would be used in the process of creating the end result so a forest could lead to a wooden cabin and a campfire being created while a snowy environment might lead to an igloo being created. Other things were created purely from mana, but the mana cost was higher if the resources weren't readily available in the environment around them.
Her party members had repeatedly assured her that her domestic skills were appreciated, but it just felt like a shame that their party had to be relegated to only taking on low-level requests for dungeon mapping just because their combat capabilities weren't that high. Sure, they had plenty of opportunities to grow stronger in the future, but a lot of the growth she would personally experience would be related to the skills she already had.