Vicdrum Searider was looking at the old-style Cythian watchtower.

It did not look like much, but such things would get you killed in his line of work. The Guild had sent him to be this place to be the [Dungeon Assessor]. The previous one had been promoted to run the Guild in the local town.

Vicdrum was not impressed with the community that was growing up around here. He was from the coast and the city that held the Dungeon of Ocean Depths. As he was from a family of good, noble stock but a younger son, he had been allowed to pursue his academic inclinations. This led him to his current profession, which his family were actually happy with.

He had been progressing well in his home city until the day he received his marching orders to come to this backwater. He had tried to get out of them until he read the name attached to giving the order and knew it was a hopeless cause.

So, he came in winter.

He was dressed in several layers and shivering. His home was never this cold, and the amount of snow he saw just at the edge of the mountain range was more than he had seen in his entire life. He had discovered that he hated the stuff. His home city had a pleasant temperature all year round, and it only changed when a storm rolled in from the sea. His deep olive skin did not like the cold air's touch.

"Where are they?" He demanded to the Guild watcher assigned to monitor the Dungeon.

"Just coming, sir?" The young man pointed behind him, and he turned. A team of adventures were approaching the entrance.

"Team Captain Gran?" He asked the led adventurer.

"Yes, Assessor Searider. We have been tasked to get you through each floor to the sixth, when another team will take over and escort you the rest of the way." It was the Guild's policy to have the team captain recite their orders to make sure there was no confusion. He did not add the orders that were for him alone. Both the Guild Leader and Master had told him not to seek the Dungeon Core.

"Excellent. I am ready when you are." It was not considered rude for a new assessor to go through an already mapped area of a Dungeon as it sometimes showed changes or missed things. In fact, a matching report was seen as a good thing for both assessors.

They entered the watchtower and Vicdrum thought they would be out of the wind. Inside, he felt a strong draft of cold air. It was here that the group drew their weapons.

"My notes indicate that an animal lives in the rafters here." Vicdrum was holding his mapping board with notes on the Dungeon listed.

"Yes, Assessor, it is in the rafters right now, watching us," Gran replied.

Vicdrum looked up sharply and it took several moments for him to spot the creature. "What is it? Is it dangerous?"

"A local beast called a sharoon. Nor very and will avoid us unless it is trapped."

"A Dungeon monster or squatter?"

"All indications it is a Dungeon monster."

"Then we continue."

Vicdrum mapped the surface building. It matched the design style of all other buildings of its kind. The legions built things well and used the same templates. The "sharoon" was added, and several odd things were noted. The building had several hatches located around it. For the moment, Vicdrum was at a loss as to why they were there. The next was damage to the building structure in one of the storerooms. It was minor and easy to miss but he spotted it and recorded the information as the damage was recent.

They went back to the stairs and started to descend into the Dungeon. The walls on the stairs curved with them and were soon covered by blue glowing moss. This gave the area a low level of light. Vicdrum activated his light crystal to illuminate himself. Each adventure had magic lanterns that gave them light.

At first glance, the first floor appeared to be the basement of the tower above, but the differences were soon apparent. There was a door that was designed only to be opened from the other side. A small but dense tin ore vein was in the first room. This matched with his notes. When the Dungeon first opened, it had been a copper vein. It was not unusual for such resource nodes to be moved.

The group's rogue, a woman named Kimor, exposed the first trap. It was a pitfall trap with a light stone covering and spikes at the bottom. Now, this was something that concerned Vicdrum. It showed a level of advanced thinking not found in younger Dungeons.

"Team Captain Gran, when did the Dungeon change from the original traps to these ones?" Vicdrum asked as he knelt next to the pit, taking notes.

"This is the original trap, Assessor Searider," Gran told him.

That caused Vicdrum to pause as he worked. "It has been here since the opening with no changes?"

"That is correct, Assessor. We were with the first assessor to enter this Dungeon."

The floor monster was a wasp. Another local breed called a grey strip which showed signs of mutations. More spike traps were revealed and the wasps were quickly dealt with. The floor boss was in a unique room. The floor was almost one giant open pit trap with a walkway running through it. The boss was killed with no issue. The floor supplied old empire-grade copper coins as its reward. No wonder tins were flocking to this Dungeon.

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The next floor made Vicdrum uncomfortable. It had a different environment. As far as he knew, Dungeons of great age and size did such things, but only on their later floors—not on the second. The stories he had dismissed started to sound authentic. This should not be possible as nothing he had read on Dungeons had ever spoken of one such as this place.

The floor had toads and rooms with knee-deep water. His boots were not high enough and his feet got wet, which did nothing to improve his mood. Another local breed of beast taken and changed by the Dungeon. A few traps were thrown in for go measure. Copper coins and flowers that could be used in alchemy were the reward.

Once they returned to the stairs, he looked over his notes and the map he had just drawn.

"Team Leader Gran, we shall hold here for a few minutes." He needed to dry his feet and think.

"Of course, Assessor Searider."

He removed his boots and used a heating crystal to try to dry them. Questions crowded his mind and he realised he could get the answer for many from this group.

"Team Leader Gran, do all the floors follow a circular shape that leads you back to the stairs?"

"On the floors, we have seen, yes, Assessor Searider, but we have heard the seventh is a bit different."

"Oh, that means you have never passed the fifth floor then?"

"Yes, Assessor. The floors below are a bit too much for us right now."

"I understand. Let us continue."

The third was another environment—open grass rooms with mud pits. The boars were another step up in danger. This floor was the most popular among adventurers as the hides and meat were in demand. The team assigned to him took their time stripping the corpses after clearing each room.

The floor boss was the first elemental-infused monster he had encountered in the Dungeon. The boss was another enlarged version of the one found on the floor. This one had Shadow Mana enhanced abilities. The team worked together, targeting the boss's weak points to take the boss down with minimum damage to its body. As soon as it collapsed, they were on it, stripping the corpse. His notes and what he had learned strongly indicated the value of the hide. More flowers were found in the room and added to the copper and first silver coins. The silver was of the same quality as the copper coins.

He had spent the longest time in this Dungeon so far. He had been checking the essence levels as they were stopping. He had noticed the strange essence flows through the Dungeon. Normally, the essence could be easily tracked, flowing through a floor to the boss. After that, the flow went down to the next floor. Here, the essence was confused and disjointed with the strange floor pattern. He felt the draft through the Dungeon, and the stairwell was acting as a vortex pushing air through the Dungeon. He suspected this was altering the flow of essence.

"Team Leader Gran, do all the floors follow the same circular pattern?" He had to ask the question.

"All apart from the seventh floor, Assessor Searider." He replied. "From what we have heard, it is a single room."

"Really, that is odd." Vicdrum did not know what to make of that.

They descended to the fourth floor. Again, the environment was different. He was now sure he would have to drop a note to the family to have them establish a presence within the town. This Dungeon was too strange to be ignored. Other communities with Dungeons had contact and connections to allow trading resources, access or even marriages between the Lords. These families were some of the most powerful on the continent. They had to be apprised to get here fast.

Would this violate his oath to the Guild?

No, as he would only suggest that it might be an idea. He would have to be careful with his language, but his family knew what to look for in his letters.

Moving through the floor, he discovered a new thing about himself. He hated spiders, especially ones large enough to kill a man. The six-leg abominations were a terror to behold. The way they moved and the great number of eyes. No, sir, he did not like this floor and would be glad to go beyond it.

Gran and his team fought the spiders as they appeared. They had crossed this floor before and the spiders were a known quantity. They stopped to collect the coins and harvest spider silk webbing. Vicdrum wanted to yell at them to get a move on but held his tongue as it would not look well on him.

One room contained eight of the scuttling horrors, which took several minutes to clear, but they died. The next contained a mutated version that forced him to get close to get a better look. He hurried through this as fast as possible.

The boss was the stuff of pure nightmares. The giant spider was a cany opponent. It struck from a different ambush point than the team expected, and they were soon in a fierce fight. The Spider demonstrated serval skills and spells that he noted as the fight went on.

He let out a deep sigh of relief when it died. The reward for the kill was collected and he recorded it. The amount was within what the Guild deemed acceptable for such a monster.

Another floor, another environment. This one was traps, earth and worms. The shift was now expected. The traps were based on the earlier floors but showed a marked improvement in lethality and design. The team's rogue worked the hardest on this floor. Some traps were disarmed, while others were circumvented using novel ideas. They were seeing more silver now.

The worms were a challenge. Their hides were tough and their mouths were covered with crystal-like teeth that could slice through armour. This meant the threat rating of this floor was raised again. Every floor had this happen, meaning that this Dungeon was one of the smallest known and most dangerous. If it followed the standard pattern, it would be an iron tier with only seven floors, not high silver.

Watching the fighting, Vicdrum could not refute the threat tier at this point. He shuddered, wondering what was still to come. This floor contained a large copper vein that was regularly visited and provided a good source of income to the town. Everything matched his notes. He could see that the team was now being stressed fighting on this floor. They were showing signs of tiredness as the use of skills and fighting were taking their toll.

When they reached the floor boss, things became intense. The giant worm was a moving siege ram. Gran and his team did not hold back, throwing everything they had into the fight. All their skills were being used, but still, it was a close-run thing. The boss died but left several of the group wounded.

They collected the reward and returned to the stairwell.

"Assessor Searider, this is where we leave you," Gran told him.

"Understood, Team Captain Gran. I will wait for the next team to take me the rest of the way. They should be waiting at the entrance."

Gran and his team ascended, leaving Vicdrum alone. He was a little afraid, as this Dungeon was strange and still had many unknowns. He inspected his floor plans and notes while he waited to keep his mind off the fact that he was alone, standing in a very dangerous place.

As he worked, he suddenly stopped and looked up the stairs.

"What was that light?" He asked aloud.

He was sure he saw something from the corner of his eye—a brief flash of soft pink light against the blue from the moss. He moved to get a better look. All he saw was the stairs and curve of the wall with the ever-present moss.

"I know I saw something."

He waited there until the next team arrived.

Watching.