We walked back to the Sleeping Giant Inn, a favorite of adventurers, in silence. The lady, Astra, is in a foul mood wearing a glare that scares away everyone from our path. We didn't even stop by the guild hall to turn in the magic cores that we had gathered, the other loot such of monster parts and treasure loot would have to be sold to a vendor or auction house.

"Good afterno..." The receptionist trailed off as she saw Astra's glare and looked away. Without a word, Astra stormed off to her room.

"Let's go to the guild hall" Cain said. After hearing Astra's door slam shut. Cain is our wizard, a bald man wearing blue robes with green eyes. He carried a long walking cane which doubles as his staff, it has a blue gem embedded at the top like all staffs. Since our group dyes a little of our hair blue Cain felt a little left out being bald so one day he came to us wearing a blue arrow painted on his head. Astra told him immediately to wash the stupid thing off and instead gave him a blue headband.

"Think we are going back?" Clar asked. she is our orc Vanguard. She wore plate armor dyed blue and carried a large battle axe. Her brown hair is braided and runs down her back. Her brown eyes match well with her naturally grey-blue skin. As a member of the blueskin tribe, she is often hot-headed and likes battle she may not be the best fit for our tank but she does her best.

"Of course, Astra is likely coming up with dozens of plans to beat that dungeon" Corzon said. He is our arcane gunner. He comes from a place that is very magically advanced, they keep their technology jealously hidden from the rest of the world. Corzon is dark skinned has short hair and dyed his hair above his right ear. He wears a leather trench coat and two gun holsters.

"She is the smartest person I know, a true genius" Cain complemented.

"But, the lady is very emotional and that blocks her judgement" Ken said. Ken holds the samurai class, he came from a very traditional place and holds those traditions dearly.

"She knows when she needs to cool off. Her competitive nature always compels her to greater heights" Keera said, Keera is our wood elf ranger, even though he looks like a child he is older than me. his subtype of elves never mature like other elves do, they always keep their child-like appearance. His green hair and eyes complement his leather armor dyed blue. His hair is wild and dyed the tips blue.

We made our way to the guild hall and turned in the magic cores and sat down to discuss strategy on how to deal with the ambushes of monsters and the sheer numbers of them. We talked for a while. Until the Crimson Divers came in. Ken got up and to talk to them.

"Congratulations on defeating the sector boss." Ken respectfully congratulated

"Thanks" the leader of the Crimson Diver replied. "Hey did you guys have trouble with monsters attacking from other rooms, to help other monsters?"

"Yeah, it's the strangest thing, they don't do that, not even for monsters of the same species" (Ken)

"And yet we see Roaches, Beetles, Spiders, and all sorts of insects helping each other out" (Crimson Divers leader)

"It's not just Insects, this dungeon is a multi-type dungeon, we met beasts when going left from the entrance" (Ken)

"Y-you mean we can skip the bugs?" Their sorceress timidly asked.

"Yes, though when we when there we were met with a lot of them, wolves, bears, cats, Badgers, all sorts. You were right that dungeon is odd" (Ken)

"A sector huh? Maybe each sector is themed like how normal dungeons are themed" (Sorceress)

"So you mean there may be a beast sector boss?" (Crimson Divers leader)

"Probably, if there is another floor then there may even be a floor boss" (Ken)

"That dungeon is too hard for its level, it's not even worth the trouble" Their Dwarf said

"Yeah, no treasure too. still, there is something about that dungeon that makes me want to get to its core, I feel like we can solve this mystery if we do" (Crimson Divers leader)

"You really want to figure this out don't you?" (Ken)

"I'm not much of a scholar but this dungeon is just too weird, almost as if it doesn't want us in it, it does it's best to try and chase us away" (Crimson Divers leader)

"That doesn't make sense, wouldn't it just want to kill us instead?" (Ken)

"You make it sound like the dungeon it'self is intelligent" (Crimson Divers leader)

"I have suspicions that it is" Cain said joining the conversation. "Why don't you guys join us at our table and talk this over"

"Thanks, we'll do that" The Crimson group joined us pulling up more chairs from other empty tables. "So what makes you think it's intelligent?" (Crimson Divers leader)

"Should we introduce ourselves first?" Ken asked.

"You are right, sorry for being rude, I am Tallen Darey"

"It was when we were fighting against the beasts" Cain said after our introductions. "Just as we were about to use our big AOEs the monsters pulled back as if waiting for that"

"Wait! they didn't do that against us, when we were fighting the Sector boss we just blasted all the adds in one go" (Tallen)

"They didn't have any in reserve?" (Cain)

"No" (Tallen)

"Hmm, this may be why The Lady had us leave even though we had the capabilities to continue" Cain said, a hand on his chin like he was overworking his brain. "She has probably already figured this out, but it may be that the dungeon is learning"

"What do you mean?" (Vala)

"The dungeon learned from the fight with you and adapted it's strategies and applied them to us" (Cain)

"That can't be..." Tallen said in disbelief.

"It's only a hunch, but maybe the dungeon doesn't want to kill us? it clearly has the power to kill the lower level adventurers and yet no one has died" (Cain)

"Either that or the dungeon is just incompetent!" Clar laughed. As she said that a certain nearby dungeon core sneezed.

"I hope that the dungeon isn't the incompetent kind" I timidly said.

"Why's that?" Vala asked.

"Um, er, well, wouldn't it be nice if the dungeon meant to harm?" I answered

"That's just how Thera is, she is very stereotypical of angel kin" Cain Explained

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Still until The Lady comes back we don't have a concrete plan" Ken said. As he said that someone stormed in and walked up to the table.

"We will defeat the dungeon boss!" Astra declared slapping her palm on the table. She glared at the Crimson Divers. "You are going to aid us!"

"But we didn't even-" (Tallen)

"You. Are. Aiding. Us!" Astra Commanded.

"There's no point in arguing when the Lady gets like this" Corvon sighed.

"Still if she said you guys are helping us then surely she knows that we would need the help" (Ken)

"Their purpose is to deal with the adds, we can take the boss on our own!" Astra explained

"Still, we don't even know if there even is a Dungeon boss"(Dovin)

"There must be! it's only logical and it will surely be guarding the dungeon core which you want to get to right? So it's a win-win" (Astra)

"Fine! we'll help you" Tallen said, giving in.

"Now that that is settled we'll have to defeat the floor boss first! After we do that we'll leave and challenge the second floor the next day, this is going to be a multi-part mission, first to defeat the floor boss and locate the entrance to the second floor. Shouldn't be that hard the floor boss should be guarding the door" (Astra)

"Should be?" Dovin asked.

"It's not always the case that the floor boss is in the same room" Cain explained.

"It will be in the same sector, there is no point otherwise, the closer to the entrance the easier it is to find and kill the floor boss, only an idiot would design a dungeon where the floor boss is in the same area as the entrance" (Astra) A certain Dungeon core sneezed again and started running a diagnostic.

"Once we defeat the floor boss we'll head back to rest and take care of the next floor boss while the previous ones are respawning. Rinse and repeat until we find the dungeon boss" (Astra)

"You make it sound easy" Tallen complained.

"One more thing, we'll kill the floor boss as quickly as we can! that means our mages will save their mana for the boss fight and blast it with their strongest single target attack!" (Astra)

"Is this to use as simple a tactic as possible to prevent the dungeon from adapting to our strategies?" Cain asked.

"Oh? you guys figured that out?" (Astra)

"With the help of our friends here" (Cain)

"Yes, we don't want to use an obsolete strategy against the dungeon boss, but I don't have a full understanding of the strengths of the bosses yet, you! Crimson Diver leader, you guys are known for having a good Inspection skill what was the strength of the bosses you fought and what level?" (Astra)

"Umm, well-" (Tallen)

"Don't "Um, well" me! answer properly!" (Astra)

"They had a lot of buffs, sector buff and boss buffs, swarms buffs and the like, as for level, room bosses are 10 to 12 with one being 13. The sector boss was level 24, a big jump" (Tallen)

Astra put her hand on her chin in thought. "Alright, the floor boss will likely be level 30 to level 36" (Astra)

"Right around our level" Vala observed.

"How strong do you think the dungeon boss will be?" Tallen asked.

"Probably 40 to 48, a level that a room boss would be at for us, definitely doable but that's assuming the level of monsters don't increase the further down we go which it will likely do" (Astra)

"So what's the real projected level of the dungeon boss?" (Ken)

"Could be as high as level 60, something a floor boss would be at for our level" (Astra)

"Now that would be a challenge, normally floor bosses take a raid, you sure we can do it with just us?" (Clar)

"Of course there'll be a raid event for the dungeon boss considering all the adds, but that's for later and that's assuming the dungeon boss is at that level." (Astra)

"So we will just tough through the hoards of monsters until we defeat the floor boss?" (Tallen)

"Yes although if we find the floor boss we may not want to immediately kill it, killing the sector boss of that zone will weaken everything else inside the zone" (Astra)

"So you guys did get that message too" (Tallen)

"Yes, killing the floor boss will also weaken everything on the floor making it easier for everyone else" (Astra)

"So we are doing this to help everyone out?" (Tallen)

"Of course not!" Astra said with a hint of a blush. "We are doing this to slay the dungeon boss, purely for the glory!"

"Hahaha! That's the Lady for you!" Clar bellowed

The door to the guild hall and two people lazily walk in. Two catkin, no wait, there is something odd about it I can't place it but there's something off about them. The two are twins, with red and blue heterochromatic eyes, They wear strange clothing, probably something from their culture. It accentuates their curves and bountiful busts which even surpass Astra's which is a difficult feat. They have white hair, were they albino? Their ears were pierced and wore ornaments with gems.

The newcomers walked to the receptionist and spoke to her. Each holding their staff in opposite hands.

The next day we all met up at the entrance to the dungeon. While waiting for the Crimson diver I stare at the Pillar of Heaven a truly endless violet crystalline tower that stretches far above the world, one could say that it reaches past the all the worlds in the sky above. The pillar of heaven comes out of the northern pole, like-wise the southern pole has its own pillar of heaven but since we are on the northern hemisphere of the world we can't see the southern one. It is said that those Pillars are pathways to Heaven for souls to travel without them souls would have no way to reach heaven. Despite being called a pillar they are pointed at the top.

Something caught my attention, a man was setting up a stall near the dungeon.

"What are you doing?" I asked

"Settin' up shop, what does it look like?" The man replied

"Here? Right next to the dungeon?"

"What's wrong with that? Other than being outside the city wall but even then the city gates are just a five-minute walk away"

"I just found it a little odd"

"Missy, you don't understand, this is the perfect opportunity to open my potion shop" He said motioning to his alchemy set and a box of potions "Adventurers won't want to go far if they're bleedin' out y'know"

"What if monsters come out of the dungeon, you'll be in danger" I say worried

"Baa! You angel kin worry too much, don't 'cha see those guards o'er there? They'll protect me and if they get hurt I get a sale!"

"A man with good entrepreneur sense" Astra interjected

"A fine lady! How 'bout it? Need a potion? I got manas, antidotes, even the rare health potions" the alchemist said with a grin.

"I like you, and rare health potions, huh? You mean the ones so rare almost any alchemist can make them?" Astra played along looking at a red colored potion, rotating it in her hand.

"Just the ones, lady, you won't find more overpriced and lower quality potions than here" It was strange to here a shopkeeper say something like that, wasn't it the point to advertise the exact opposite of what he said?

"My! What a rare thing to find, It must be my lucky day" Astra was acting poorly on purpose, how were these to able to connect so easily, it's like I am not even here anymore, if only I wasn't so shy. Maybe one day I can be like her.

"Yer lucky day?! Well, that must mean I should give you a discount then, normal price, how 'bout it?"

"This day keeps getting better, yes I'll take a mana potion for our healer here"

"A'ight, and I'll throw in an extra one 'cause it's yer lucky day"

How? Why? I don't understand, why give away things that you were planning to sell? I just stood there with a dumbfounded look.

 As we walked away i opened my mouth to ask Astra how she was able to do that just now when she spoke out first.

"Finally!" Astra Complained. "What took you guys so long?!" The Crimson Divers finally arrived

"Sorry Dovin sleeps like a rock" (Tallen)

"Bahaha!" Dovin laughed. Dwarves are one of the races that originally live in the Cavern world, great cavern under the ground that can accommodate massive cities.

"This is not a laughing matter!" Astra angrily said.

"We are here now, are we going to spend more time yelling at each other or get going?" Tallen said.

"Fine! lets get going!" We took our steps into the depths of the dungeon, little did we know, one of us will have the greatest challenge of her life.