"The food last night was so good!"

"It'll really be a shame not getting to drink another glass of ale for a while!"

Calista listened as her party members talked amongst themselves. Last night had indeed been quite fun as they had indulged in every amenity the dungeon had available. They had made sure to bring several hundred small [Items]to exchange for accommodation and food during their trip. Even though they'd likely only be staying the night once on each floor, they needed to try all of the food options and room types in order to thoroughly report on the situation in the dungeon.

The first floor seemed to have three different room types that scaled in price with the level of accommodations available. It costs 10 points to rent the smallest room, 15 points to rent a double room, and 50 points to rent out the largest room. They had drawn lots the night before to determine who got to sleep where. As there were three men and two women in their party, she had gotten lucky enough to stay in the largest room with their team leader, Cassia, while her brother had ended up in a room alone, and Orik and Amaris shared a room.

Their meal had been more fairly split since they could all easily try some of everything. In fact, their server, a young girl named Elora, had even brought them five extra cups so they could split each serving of drink into enough portions for them all to have a taste. Well, she wasn't really the sort who enjoyed drinking, but she had quite enjoyed the fruit-flavored sodas. The meals had been enjoyed in a similar manner with them each taking a portion onto a separate plate to eat from. Since there was so much food, it was still difficult for her to finish everything, but she had quite enjoyed the experience.

While it was entirely true that they could have each chosen different dishes and given a report on the dishes they had tried, there was also value in having more than one opinion for any one dish. If there was a poison that only affects certain races or certain genders, they'd be able to note it in their report. Similarly, they could note if one person's tastebuds dictated a dish to be particularly tasty while another person found it to be lacking in some way. They aimed to be very thorough in their reports, regardless of whether they were rating the [Traps] and [Monsters] in a dungeon, a special rest area, or anything else for that matter.

As they walked through the door to the official combat area of the dungeon, she became more alert. Cassia took point ahead of the others while Bellarth remained at the back. Calista summoned a golem right away, causing the dirt and trees around them to shake as it formed from the materials around them. Soon a hulking figure stood towering over their group, if just barely. She gestured for her golem to take the back and guard her brother while continuing to follow the others in their group.

She could immediately detect movement in the trees above them, as did most of the others in their group. Most of them were Elves, after all, so their senses were heightened, making it easier to detect changes in their environment. Bellarth and Orik each prepared their ranged weapons, taking their time to aim before shooting the targets above them. When the first crossbolt struck its target, a chunk of stone came hurtling toward the ground before the gargoyle smashed into pieces. The other [Monsters] quickly jumped from the trees, eager to attack now that they knew they didn't have the element of surprise, but that only made it easier for them to strike them down.

"Is that all of them? The upper limit for [Monsters] in any room is five on the lower floors, so everyone stay alert in case there are more further in."

Cassia instructed. They hardly needed the reminder, but Calista appreciated the guidance all the same. It was always better safe than sorry when you were exploring a dungeon, no need to take risks with one's life when you don't have to. However, their worries were for nothing. Even after all the gargoyles were killed, it took a bit of walking around for Bellarth's skill to detect everything in the room. Despite how time-consuming it could be, this is what they were here for, so no one complained.

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"There haven't been any [Traps] or resources in the last few rooms and it seems every room only had three basic gargoyles."

Bellarth reported.

"It's a real shame, it would have been nice to find some potion ingredients."

"I would have liked to increase my proficiency in my [Trap] detection and disarming skills as well."

Orik and Aramis's complaints were ignored by Cassia as they continued forward into the first challenge room. Most dungeons tended to be lacking in resources and creativity on the lower floors. The Dungeon Masters always seemed to be in too much of a hurry to unlock the higher floors and then just never bothered to come back through and fill in the lower floors. This dungeon was hardly special in that aspect.

The next few hours were spent jumping from platform to platform as they tried to get used to the obstacle course in the tropical parkour room. It was tedious and frustrating every time they got knocked into the water by a weak push wall [Trap] or slid off the slippery ice of one of the platforms, but it was hardly the worst they had ever dealt with. The difficulty wasn't even that high. Orik was able to disarm the wall push [Traps] after getting the hang of the timing and then they didn't have to even worry about those anymore, but the rest just required practice.

Cassia was the first to complete the challenge as her B-rank status and the height and strength difference from her Half-Giant race gave her a bit of an advantage. However, they all did their best to complete the challenge before leaving. Most of them managed to earn the reward, but they weren't entirely sure how happy they were about it.

"What is this? I didn't do all that work for a set of damn towels!"

Orik complained, his deep voice echoing through the rainforest. They had set up camp for the night in the first [Monster] field they had come to after clearing the challenge.

"Well, they are of decent quality, though. If you don't want them, we can always give yours to the guild. I'd be happy to keep mine as I'm sure my wife would enjoy them. She'd always complains that ours are made from too rough a material and that they're going threadbare, but even the closest big city's tailor doesn't have anything as nice as this."

Aramis replied. While it was more common for some of the other races to settle down and retire from adventuring before starting a family, it was a bit different for Elves. Calista didn't currently have a partner, but Aramis had already settled down with a pretty Elven beauty from his home village. Every time they had some downtime he'd head home until he got notice they were ready to head out again. Calista supposed it likely helped his wife feel less lonely to be married to a rare telepath who could always use his skills to communicate, regardless of the distance between them. Well, a longer distance would cost more mana and usually required a higher ranking to make possible, but Aramis used the skill so often that it was hardly a problem so long as they were still in the Rosefall Empire.

"These seem to be exactly like the ones from the large inn room we stayed in last night, Calista."

Cassia said. She turned to the large Half-Giant woman, nodding her head as she replied

"Yeah, it had felt like such a pity that we couldn't take them with us. We can't risk angering the Dungeon Master, though, especially since we want to be chosen to map out the dungeon again next year."

Their group continued to spend the night chatting idly about their day's adventurers and what tomorrow might hold. Their accommodation for the night was certainly not as nice as it had been when they had stayed in the inn, but the resources in the tropical rainforest were abundant and she had been able to make a very comfortable shelter and abundant feast for their night's meal. There was a warm fire with logs to sit on, wooden cabins with wooden furniture and a layer of leaves and grass to form a mattress of sorts. The meal was simple with fresh water, bread, and soup. There was naturally water in their environment, so it only needed to be purified for drinking, but there weren't any edible plants, so the meal was simple as it had to be made purely from mana.

Callista could still remember how bad their rations used to be when she was a lower rank and had first unlocked the skill. Hard bread and room temperature water that was barely drinkable was the best she could pull off then. Now, if she didn't need to also provide a shelter, she could even make a more lavish spread than they had tonight with fresh fruits and stir-fried dishes made from mushrooms. It just wasn't worth it to sleep on the cold hard ground when they could accept slightly worse rations. Still, she did hope that she'd one day be able to improve the level of her grand feast skill enough to summon food worthy of its name.