I start my day by listing to my incompetent servant give his report on the mercenaries that were sent into the dungeon. After listening to the report I was enraged. Not bothering to listen to the rest of the report, I start to scream at him.

(?????) "What do you mean the mercenaries never returned!? They were all ranked D-. How would they lose to a dungeon that was just formed?"

(Servant) "I d-don’t know sir."

(?????) "Well, you better find out! Cause if you don't, you will be the next person entering that dungeon. Understand?"

(Servant) "Y-Yes General Markstan."

(General Markstan) "Good! Then go and summon my party. We have a plan to recreate do to the incompetence of those under me."

(Servant) "Yes, sir!"After saying that he hurriedly leaves the room to search for the members of my team.

As soon as he leaves, I start to think about the things that have happened the last few days. First, we received reports that a new dungeon had formed out in the mountains at the edge of the kingdom. But when we got there it was already strong enough to take down a full party of adventures. Since it was stronger then it was predicted to be. I was ordered to not enter it till it was confirmed to be safe. To do this we sent in scouts with the goal to reach the core and report back to us. Since none of them returned we decide to hire some mercenaries to clear it for us. And that leads us to where we are now, with nothing left to try but an all out attack.

It was as I was thinking this as my party entered the meeting room. The first of the group was my childhood friend Riwig. We were both born in the same small village and joined the military at a young age. But unlike me, he trained in a strange blade called a katana. A strange sword brought by people from another world know as Earth. We quickly rose in ranks and it was on one of our missions that we met Cia. A young sorcerer, who despite being two years younger than us at the time, was able to defend her whole village from a goblin attack. Comforting her after we brought her back to our corp, we convinced her to join the military and fight with us to make sure that nothing like this was able to ever happen again.

The three of us were investigating a road where carriages were diapering. It was here that we met the last member of our party Erildar, a young elf who was hunting the same monsters we were. After joining forces, we were able to kill all of the monsters that were in the area. With the monsters defeated we were going to part ways when Riwig asked him to join us. Accepting his offer Riwig has helped us with many missions, despite never being part of the military. With him now part of our group, we had many more adventures before I was promoted to general and Riwig ended up marrying Cia and having a child.

I was going to continue reminiscing about the past when I was jolted back to reality by Riwig speaking.

(Riwig) "Hey Markstan, hows it been?"

(General Markstan) "Calm as always, I see."

(Riwig) "Of course! You, on the other hand, seem to under a lot of stress."

(General Markstan) "You have no idea. If things hadn't been going so bad there is no way that I would have asked you for help now that you have a kid."

(Cia) "Relax, we have been friends for years. If you ever need help just tell us."

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

(Riwig) "She's right. We have been friends since we were kids. There's no way that I wouldn't help you now. Right Erildar?"

Not saying anything, Erildar nodes his head at the question.

(Cia) "See, we are all with you, so just tell us the problem so that we can help you."

(General Markstan) "About a month ago, a new dungeon was reported by the pope to have appeared in this area. I was in charge of destroying the dungeon and collecting the tax for this service from the village. But things started to go wrong once we got the village. There was an adventure who had entered the dungeon and had his whole party had been wiped out. I thought that they were just careless and sent a team of scouts into the dungeon, they never returned. Since then we have sent many teams and even some local mercenary went into the dungeon. But every party we sent in never returned. We have no idea what is in the dungeon or how strong it might be. All we do know is that it is at least ranked D-. If it is left to grow it might become a threat to the entire empire."

(Riwig) "So we are going to enter a dungeon that no one has ever left alive and we have no idea how strong it is or will be. Count me in."

(General Markstan) "I understand that you won't be able to. Wait what?"

(Riwig) "There is no way that I would miss something like this."

(General Markstan) "Are you sure? Don't you have a kid to look after? I only called you because I was ordered to, you don't need to fight this battle."

(Cia) "We are your friends if you need our help we will be there for you."

(Riwig) "Besides, Lea is already 15, You make it sound like she is still just a child. Also, she has been learning to be an adventure for five years now. We need to at least make things as safe for here as we can before we retire."

(General Markstan) "Thanks, I really appreciate what you are doing for me. If you ever need anything of me just say so."

(Riwig) "Come on, we have been friends for years, there is no need for you to act like this."

(Cia) "Ya, just tell us the plan."

(General Markstan) "We will have a total of seven teams, three are mercenary that we paid, two are high-level teams from the army, one is a group of villagers, and the last one will be us. All seven teams will charge in and look for the dungeon core. The first team to reach it is to destroy it and get out of the dungeon. A message has been sent to the empire that if we don't return in 30 days to the capital, it means that we have fallen in the dungeon."

(Riwig) " So we just charge into the dungeon and hope that someone destroys the core?"

(General Markstan) "That is the plan. We will be attacking tomorrow, so I would recommend getting some sleep."

As I say that Erildar simply turns around and leaves. Following right after, Cia and Riwig walk off together for their personal tent.

With them gone I start to go towards my own sleeping quarters, trying to ignore a gnawing feeling of worry that is starting to build up inside me.

(Author's Notes) Sorry about stopping posting chapters all of a sudden. I lost my internet and by the time I got it back school had started. I am settled now and will try to post a chapter every day again. Also, how do these characters feel? I have never written before and want to make sure they don't all fell like they have the same personality.