After paying 50 silver to the guard, Nora entered the city through the gates. After walking through the gates, Nora saw that the city of Arendal was built on a steep hillside with shops, restaurants, and houses all piled around each other with series of interlocking alleyways.
Weaving through the labyrinth of roads, Nora made her way towards the dungeon entrance. From asking the guards for directions, she knew that the dungeon entrance was located in the middle of the city, surrounded by many facilities. Along the way, Nora spotted porters advertising their services and miners asking for parties by the roadside.
“Porter here, Porter here, the best porter in town here! Able to carry 30 kg of loot and knows all the best farming shots in the first 3 level!”
“Don’t listen to him, he don’t know crap! Hire me instead! I’m able to carry 35kg and i know all the best farming shots in the first 4 levels!”
“Miner here! Anyone looking to party up? Will pay 15 gold for protection in the 3rd level!”
Walking through brick road alleyways, Nora met a wide variety of people and each time she walked past a person, Candy would ask if he or she was food. And each time she asked, Nora patiently declined and replied telepathically with “later”.
Nora decided to quicken her pace. The nearer she got to the dungeon entrance, the more excited she got. After hearing all good things about the dungeons, Nora couldn’t wait to give it a try.
In a world where magic supported the way of life, dungeons were a huge economic boon to society. Many employment opportunities were born as dungeons provided materials for magic tools, their fuels, and magic crystals. And thus, large groups of people with different occupations could be seen walking around the place.
Normally, magic crystals, which made the global magic economy turn, could only be found in areas where there was an extremely large amount of magical power. However, dungeons were different. Due to the fact that dungeons were filled with high amounts of mana, not only could magic crystals be found on the walls, they could be found in monsters as well.
Moreover, dungeons produced many other materials too, like valuable ores, magic tools, weapons, and armours inside of treasure chests. Thus, with the added benefits of being able to train by fighting monsters in a safe environment, strong dungeons like the Arendal dungeon were heavily sought after by strong adventurers.
Soon, Nora arrived at the center of the town and was greeted by a flurry of colourful buildings. There were adventurer’s guild buildings, mage’s association buildings, auctions houses, and many more.
(Master, go to the adventurer’s guild first. Adventurers must first register with the guild before going into the dungeon. Because the dungeon’s popularity, there’s a problem of overpopulation inside the dungeon. Thus, adventurers must pay a heavy fee to book a timing to enter. As for the auction house, we can enter later. Loot such as magic stones, raw monster materials and magic tools obtained from the dungeon can be sold there.)
Evelyn quickly explained what each building was for. With the memories of the C rank knight she took over, Evelyn had basic knowledge on how dungeoneering worked.
Opening the door to the adventurer’s guild building, Nora noticed that the area was filled with the smell of sweat. There were a lot of coarse men inside, while the figures of female adventurers were rare. Moreover, not only were adventurers there, miners and porters filled the halls of the building as well.
Nora walked towards the stalls of the receptionists. However, just after taking a single step, a young man in leather armour walked up Nora and asked, “hey sweety. You seem to be alone, so why don’t you join our party? We’ve gathered exactly 11 people here, so there is one spot left.”
(Master, food?)
(No)
“Ah, it’s ok. I’ll enter alone,” Nora replied to the young man.
The man was taken aback by Nora’s refusal, “You’re a newbie, aren’t you? Why would you want to waste your entrance fee by entering by yourself?”
(Master, remember what i said about parties? Due to the limited time slots, many would party up to from a party of 12. 3 porter, 3 miner and 6 fighters. Then they’ll share the entrance fee of 60 gold between the 12 of them. Only the extremely rich and powerful would dare enter alone.)
(So wait, if I want to use it alone then I’ll have to pay the fee of 60 gold?)
(Yes. Moreover, it is an hourly fee. The longer you stay the more you need to pay. Moreover, not only would you need to pay an absurd amount of gold, you’ll also incur the hatred of other adventurers.)
When the young man realized that Nora was deliberating, the young man decided to introduce himself to make himself look better, “I’m Derrick, C rank, what’s yours?”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“I’m Nora, silver one,” Nora replied and held her adventurer’s badge up.
Derrick was taken aback, However, he quickly recovered. Though silver one was quite an achievement for someone so young, it wasn’t that rare that he would freak out about it. There were countless cases of students in prestigious magic academies reaching higher ranks at much younger age. Thus, Derrick wasn’t that worked up about it.
He was only taken aback by the fact that she was at the same rank as he was. After recovering, Derrick continued, “Ah! Then you are in luck. We’re climbing down to the 3rd level. Why not give it a try. If you dislike it, you can leave after the run is over. Our 12 addition bailed on us so we are in need of another fighter. Moreover, we will be splitting the cost.”
“Hmmm. All right,” Though Nora had the gold to enter and was able to take care of her own safety, in the end she decided to join the party without any fuss. It was too much of a risk to incur the wrath of every adventurer for wasting mining and looting potential. Moreover, she didn’t mind being in a party. Nora only wanted to check the dungeon out, not clear it.
Joining the party, Derrick led Nora towards the other party members. They were all crowding around a table. Nora saw that including her, there were 10 guys and 2 girls. Derrick introduced her to the rest. Some were a bit surprised at her rank but none were really that worked up about it.
“Now, some of you may have already known the basic rules but i repeat it again for the sake of the 3 newcomers. Distribution of the haul will be according to everyone’s contribution. Since we have 4 C rank and 2 D rank fighters, C ranks will get 20% of the haul while D ranks will get 10%. We’ll pay 15 gold each to the porters while the miners pay us 20 gold each for our protection. Moreover, the miners get to keep what they mined and if an item is dropped during the raid, we will auction or sell it at the auction house and share the earnings with all the fighters. Is everyone clear?”
“Yes,” everyone replied.
“Good, then we’ll enter the dungeon in an hour. Do whatever you want in the meantime, just don’t leave this building. I don’t want to waste our time trying to find you.”
Hearing his words, everyone nodded and split up to do their own business.
“Whew, I’m shaking. How about you?” A female elf around the age of 18 came to Nora and asked. She was wearing a blue robe with a emblem of a silver wand on it.
(“Master, master, look! An elf!”)
Evelyn cheered in delight. It had been a long time since she last saw an elf.
Realising that the elf was trying to make a friendly conversation with her, Nora replied back in a sufficient manner. While they waited for their turn to enter the dungeon, Nora and the elf talked. Nora soon found out that the elf’s name was Sheri, and that she was having a hard time getting along with the rest of the party. The men of the group were just trying to cozy up to her due to her being an elven beauty.
Sheri was a silver one mage, who was very interested in the Dungeons. Though it was going to be her first time entering a dungeon, she possessed a vast array of knowledge, making Nora’s conversation with her quite beneficial. Nora learnt a lot more about dungeons from her, like having to pay fees when leaving the dungeon late and that return stones exist.
Return stones were magical tools found inside dungeons which allowed the user to teleport back to the entrance by breaking it. Return stones were sold to adventurers for 10 gold each. Hearing about the return stones, Nora decided to buy one for herself before returning to converse with Sheri.
After that, Nora found out that there were different types of dungeons. In the world of Lordran, there were many types of dungeons, like aquatic dungeons, slime dungeons, goblin dungeons, orc dungeons, and many more. There were many in the world that loved dungeons for their resources and mystery, even if they were some meddlesome ones like aquatic dungeons.
However, there was one that everyone hated, undead dungeons. Due to the calamity’s influence, all type of undeads were hated by society. Thus, even with large amounts of resources, no one liked undead dungeons. Whenever an undead dungeon was found, all would immediately try to destroy its dungeon core. This was how much people hated undeads.
After a hour, Derrick called for everyone to gather. It was time to enter the dungeon. After making sure everyone had enough gold, Derrick led everyone towards the dungeon portal. Beside the portal was a desk with a receptionist behind it.
After walking towards the receptionist, everyone paid 10 gold each to enter for 2 hours.
“Ok ok. Let’s start getting ready to enter.”
The barrier around the Dungeon let out a green light as the party walked towards it. Walking through the portal, waves spread out, causing a ripple effect on the portal surface.
The next thing Nora knew, she found herself standing in a dark cave. Evelyn immediately shot out and took over Sheri’s body. Since there were only the 12 of them in the dungeon, Evelyn had no fear about getting caught. They were too weak to sense her. After entering the elf’s body, Evelyn felt as if she was whole again. It had been a long time since she was in one. She missed it thoroughly. She always felt more comfortable being in her own race’s body.
“Ok. Let’s get into position. Though it’s only the first level without any traps, let's not be overconfident. Warriors stay in front while the 2 mages stay behind. As for the miners and porters, you guys stay in the middle. This way, the warriors can defend while the mages support from behind,” Derrick spoke.
Hearing the party leader’s well-reasoned plan, everyone quickly agreed. Since it was the first time for 3 of the 6 fighters, everyone thought it was best for them to play it safe.
Derrick and three other warriors carrying swords and shields stepped forward and positioned themselves in front of everyone. After that, the miners and porters stepped forward, positioning themselves between everyone.
After getting into position, everyone walked forward with Derrick leading the way. This was not Derrick’s first time attempting the Dungeon and thus he knew where everything was.
“Keek?”
When they turned the corner, Nora saw four level 20 kobolds charge at them. Kobolds were small humanoid monsters with a hideous lizard face. They were said to be far descendants of dragons. The kobolds were covered in small brown scales and carried short wooden spears.
The kobolds stabbed their spears forward.
*Tahng*
However, they were blocked by the metal shields, so it didn’t do much damage. Retaliating, the close combat fighters raised their weapons and lunged with their swords. Without any effort, they mercilessly pierced the kobolds down with their swords. One kobold tried to run away but Nora shot an ice spear out, leaving a large bloody hole in the kobold’s body.
“Don’t waste your mana here! Save your mana for later floors.” The 3 veterans of the group shouted.
Nora flinched at their shout but quickly nodded. Nora felt embarrassed at her display. Since it was her first time in a party, she didn’t know what not to do.
Meanwhile, Evelyn in Sheri’s body stealthly stared daggers at them. Though she didn’t show it, hearing them shout at her master made her extremely angry. Evelyn wanted to kill them all and blame it on the dungeon but her master stopped her.
(Evelyn, don’t! It is stupid and excessive to try and kill them just for trying to warn me.)
Evelyn regained her cool and stopped, complying to her master’s order. Though she wanted to kill them, she knew it was a bit excessive. They were just trying to warn her for the sake of the party.
Everyone except for the porters continued on, leaving the kobold’s bodies behind. The porters stayed behind to collect the mana crystals found inside the kobolds.
The party marched onward, clearing the path towards the tunnel to the 2nd floor while the porters followed from behind, collecting all the loot and mana crystals along the way.
After a few minutes, everyone soon arrived at the tunnel to the second floor.
“Let’s go.”