“As stated previously, all dungeons are unique. Each has its own layout, monsters, and rewards. While some might be similar, it has been researched, and the consensus is that it is just similar, nothing more. With this knowledge, the question of why is brought up, and the answer to that is we don't know. To have hundreds of dungeons with none being identical points to a lack of randomness. The question of what a dungeon really is may never be answered by mortal hands, at least not in my lifetime.” - Richard New Newdall, Dungeon researcher.

Aster

I waited before climbing onto Umbra's back as she settled down to give me an easier time up her shoulder. I listened to her speak as Kat walked away with a march in her step that I didn't want to be in front of.

“I am a dragon, and none of us are weak. I can kill well above my grade if I am fighting the right creature, but we don't know what we're getting into, as we've both said. I won't disagree that getting strong is a good idea, and ideally, a dungeon would be the right spot, but there are limits to what we should attempt.”

Being told I was acting arrogant by a dragon was something I bet a lot of other people couldn't claim. Rubbing the scales under my palm, I grinned, using the bond to speak as I settled down in the spot that suited us both the best. Strapping myself down with the leather ties on my armor, I chose my words carefully. “That was the point. I might be eager, but I almost died to a grade three less than a week ago. I don't want to repeat that, but I didn't want to leave Kat worried. I know it'll be dangerous. Though, I do have an idea to make it safer.”

Umbra’s response was a curious rumble and an “Oh?”

I nodded, even knowing she wasn't looking at me. “Yeah, there is no way we're going to dive into a dungeon-like that without being ready. Well, we are, but not exactly. I've told you about the dungeons beforehand and how they all have a spot at the beginning that holds no creatures while you go inside mostly tunnels. With the animals you found for us to eat, It's a place we can prepare to at least start on our skill leveling.”

Umbra made a noise of accent but didn't agree just yet. “If it's not? Kat made a raid dungeon out to be quite dangerous, and if twelve people are allowed into one, and with those people being no less than one or two grades above us, then nothing in there will be an easy fight for us, even on the first floor.”

“That's true, but we are not playing by the normal rules. We want to stay in the dungeon as long as possible. We can take our time on each floor, and I'm sure, at a minimum, we can clear part of the first floor for practice. We have time to be careful. There is no rush. As soon as we get inside the dungeon, we are only limited by our food and water, and we have over three weeks’ worth.”

Umbra stood up fully, her wings unfurling, and we both looked up at the now-dark sky. The three griffins were already in the air and circling, easy to spot with the moon's slight glow and the multiple stars.

“It's going to be hard, harder than anything we've done before, but we'll finally be able to do it together as proper bonds,” Umbra said, and I could sense the slight worry but, under it, excitement.

I nodded at her words, feeling the wind swirl as she beat her winds, bringing us into the air. I took a long breath and let out a happy sigh. As we rose, my eyes adjusted, and I looked at the ground. My night eye skill only helped for around thirty feet, an increase from the twenty feet it used to be because of the skill being at level nine, but it still wasn't a help while looking down.

“I don't think I'll ever not enjoy this. I see why flying is such a big enjoyment for dragons every time I look down.”

Umbra let out a sound of pleased agreement, and as we reached the griffin's height, they started east, and we followed. The flight was smooth and peaceful. We kept low to the ground, only a few thousand feet high, so I didn't have to bother with putting the riding helmet on. During the trip, neither I nor Umbra spoke. I took advantage of the cold air and spent the majority of the time practicing my meditation on dragon back, which, even with the cold, I found surprisingly hard. Every gust of wind or movement under me pulled me out of the skill and forced me to enter it again, but only a few hours in, I was rewarded with the notification of an increase.

[Through practice and persistence, your skill, Frost Affinity Meditation - Rank Eight, has Increased to Rank Nine]

To my annoyance and slight amusement, that knocked me Out of meditation as well. After a total of six hours, a bit more than I was told. Umbra nudged me mentally, and I followed her attention to see a glow in the distance. At first, it was a speck on the horizon, but with how quickly the griffins and, by extension, Umbra were flying, it only took a handful of minutes to make out that it was a city. The city, once I was able to make out most of it, proved to be what I would guess was average in terms of size. Hundreds or maybe a thousand buildings, mostly made of clay and stone, were surrounded by a small wall in a hexagon shape that held a tower on each point. The layout was simple, but I admired it. The wide roads, six of them circled the city on the edge with two gates, opposite of each other and closed, the ways in. The outer city had smaller one or two-story buildings that grew into three or four-story buildings as they got close to the middle of the city. In the very middle, the heart of the city, a circle where all the roads met, was the largest building, a castle with its own walls. The castle was extremely small compared to the one in Arilon, but if the games during the strategy club had taught me anything, it was a well-built and thought-out city that would be hard to attack without a decent force or air superiority.

Instead of getting closer to the city, we veered off to the side where a large hill surrounded by a small, thin but oddly round forest was. As we got closer to it, we started to descend. I leaned over, looking down with curiosity. Between the trees, I was able to make out large stone pillars poking out of the forest, the tips of them were sharp, and I couldn't help but imagine any creature falling on them would have a bad time. Turning to let Umbra know about them, I realized she'd already spotted them as I caught her looking down as well. Thinking back to the dungeon with sulfur outside and why a city was nearby, I wondered what would be waiting inside.

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As expected, all three griffins landed right in the heart of the forest on the hill. As we landed, the entrance to the dungeon became obvious. A set of thick twisting roots poked up from the ground, wrapping around themselves and reaching higher, forming an arch big enough to allow all three griffins in shoulder to shoulder.

If it wasn't apparent, then the shadows that rose out of the arch and filled in were given away. “Well, it's going to be either related to those shadows, forest, or the Pillars, probably all of them. Make the chance of edible monsters more likely.” untying myself, I slid down.

The idea of speaking to any of the griffin riders or Ren about what was in the dungeon throughout the last few days had crossed my mind, but the possibility of them lying to us made it not worth going off anything they would say anyway. Tapping, rubbing one of my ears, I hummed a tune I'd picked up off a street performer in Arilon as I took my new bag stuffed to the brim out with my bow from my storage. Sliding it on, I took out the quiver full of arrows, then I took out the gloves and slid them on. Lastly, I took out my helmet, looking down at it. The flying helmet with its faceplate of blank crystal was built to take a hit, and my mistake of not Wearing it in the last dungeon wouldn't be repeated Here. Flipping it around, I slid It on. Idly, I wondered if it would ever be possible to find the runes hidden in the object and replicate them.

Tapping the top of my head, I took a moment to get used to the slightly narrower view and looked at Umbra. None of the riders had decided to approach us, all of them a ways back, probably not to be included in the dungeon party when we entered, and I found myself happy at that fact. I didn't know Ren well, but he disliked dragons and their bonds enough to want us dead, even if it was in a roundabout way that was actually going to end up helping us.

Umbra blinked at me, and we shared agreement as we turned to the entrance. We'd done all we could out here, so it was time to go in. Taking in a breath, I shook each of my limbs as we walked up. “Next time we come out, we'll be going into the realm event and ready for isaidI said, trying to shed some of my nerves as I looked at the black shadows.

“Then we best be ready for it.” Umbra rumbled, and we walked in.

The feeling of teleportation was dizzying but gone in an instant, and I was met by a system message.

[You have entered the Golven Raid Dungeon. Participants detected 2 of 12. The instance will remain open unless filled for 1 hour.]

We were in just like that. After reading the message and swiping it away, I looked over at Umbra. I'd sensed her arrival with me but now felt a spark of glee as I saw her looking around.

I followed her lead a moment later with the realization that we weren't underground. We were on a grass field in a valley. It was still night, but looking up, I noticed there wasn't a moon in the sky providing the light; instead, multiple large orbs that looked far away but too close at the same time provided light. My short inspection of the dungeon was put on hold As another system screen appeared.

[Golven Dungeon Quest - Dungeon Break - Golven Dungeon is currently in a state of mana overflow while being unable to advance. Because of this, normal dungeon activities have been suspended. To prevent a dungeon collapse, defeat dungeon monsters to decrease stored mana. Defeated Monster 0/???]

I felt my eye twitch in part anxiety and part anger. Of course, there would be something, of course. I looked over to Umbra, who I knew hadn't gotten the same message.

“I guess this won't be as easy as we thought, not that it was going to be easy at all. Should I say this isn't going to be as hard as we…no that doesn't sound right either, or hells, this is just going to be a pain. At least the area is relatively nice.” I slapped a hand over my mask, the best I could get to a facepalm.

“This is why the bird rider thought we would die.” Umbra trailed her claws through the grass, upending mounds of dirt and roots

I looked around with a frown. The small valley was quiet for now. “Well, it looks like we're fine for now. Why don't we see what we can do in terms of setting up a place for now, and then we can look into what this quest means? There's no point looking for any more trouble.”

My eyes landed on the specks of tree tops in the distance as the ground sank.

Umbra rumbled, her tail lashing as she made her way closer to me, now looking around with less of an interest in everything and instead for any dangers.

When I said a small valley, I meant small, only about a mile wide and three long. The slopes on the side grew into tall cliffs after only a short incline and while it was significantly lacking in anything besides dirt, the odd large stone and grass, it made for a good place to keep an eye out in every direction. As far as a camp went, there really wasn't anything to set up. Umbra helped to dig up the ground, digging us a hole and promptly applying a generous amount of ice over the dirt with her breath so that we could sleep without having the same problem of being easy to spot.

“It's like another world, I can't believe it. In the last two dungeons, it was easy to tell that I was underground. Here, it's different; we're only in the valley, but this isn't like the other dungeons.” I explained to Umbra as we both relaxed in our new home for however long we were here. Idly, I pulled out the Void Event Token and then blinked at the ease. The action had been reflexive, but there hadn't been a strain to pull it out. Looking at my mana and the three missing points, I felt my eyebrows lift. Looking into my storage, I pulled out one of the barrels of water we had. There was a slight strain but nothing pushing what I'd felt when trying in other dungeons, and it appeared next to me in front of my outstretched hand. A chuckle left my lips. I spoke my next thoughts aloud. “There's almost no strain when I try to pull any item out of my storage. I don't know if it's because of the dungeon break, the dungeon being a raid dungeon, or something else but the increase of an item is only slightly above normal.”

“Well, at least something good has come out of the quest,” Umbra said, her head snaking up to look out of the hole.

Storing the container of water, I looked back to my token and identified it.

[Bound Void Event Token - Unique - The token required for entry to the Void Merge Realm Event. Event Begins in 1 Year, 0 Months, 7 Days, 12 Hours, and 14 Minutes of current realm time. Item is bound and will return to the owner if separated.]

So, the time had been updated to account for the dungeon. A whole year that made the time dilation a little over three times slower if my math was right. Flipping the token with my thumb I watched it rise and fall before catching and repeating the motion. A whole year inside a dungeon, at least there was light and grass. The first priority was to see what the monsters were. Once we knew what the first part of the dungeon held, we could clear out everything around us and start what we'd come here to do, work on our skills. Passing on the time we had to Umbra, I was surprised when A low, long sigh with a light rumble escaped her nose. I looked at her in surprise. It was the closest noise I'd heard her make since she was a hatchling.

She looked at me with slightly distraught eyes. “It's going to be a year before we can get more of those cakes, and you only have one left.”

The urge to laugh was only stopped by the effort of a lifetime of hunting and her sad expression.