Edward knew that his life until now was far from terrible, hard, and difficult, but he understood from the beginning that things wouldn't be easy. You see, Edward was the illegitimate child of Duke Nightingale, a small but well-known family under the Chosen Empire, famed for their history of land development and logistical systems that were often used to fuel the fires of the empire's growing borders as well as enable the political machinations of the noble houses, for a price of course. For Edward though, most of this didn't matter, bastards weren't allowed to inherit from their parents no matter the age or sex, and more often than not they were sent to the military or given a bare-bones education a bag of gold and directions to the nearest city, but for a small group of nobles their illegitimate children weren't given a few essentials and thrown to the side, instead they would be put to work.

Of course, they still couldn't inherit but these few families found that bastards were excellent for dangerous or experimental moves, perhaps a risky land grab, a plot to gain more influence over a city or maybe even the military, or in Edward's case, a dungeon suppressor. Dungeon suppression was a simple but incredibly dangerous job that required people to risk life and limb exploring undiscovered dungeons and reporting their finds back to the empire, generally, the noble that owns the land, and when a new dungeon appeared in one of the least likely of places at the northernmost point of the Nightingale territory, Edward knew that he would have to risk everything again.

Edward strode through the halls of his father's mansion, having been summoned by him for what was undoubtedly another mission, it had to be since he was able to glimpse the imperial augurs before they disappeared into the night, as he opened the door to the solar, he was met by his father and half-brother, the current heir of the family.

"Son, no doubt you've seen the augurs already, so let's get down to business, you are to be sent to our northern territory near the Ushenk Mountains, from there you will do your duty and wait for your brother to arrive with our men, and I don't have to remind you of the importance of this."

Uther Nightingale was never expressively cruel or caring towards Edward, he never stuck him nor did he ridicule him or incite hate from his half-siblings, but he never showed much outward care, not that Edward desired it, while Uther acknowledged that Ed was his son he made it abundantly clear that their relationship was transactional, in exchange for a decent upbringing and the investment of money and resources to train his magical talents, Edward was to work for the family for 30 years or after producing enough value for the family that Uther agreed to release him from his debt. But his comment about how important this particular mission would be was not lost on Edward, dungeons were a precious resource for not just the empire but for every nation of every land, it was then safe to say that whoever controlled the dungeons commanded a massive amount of power. If House Nightingale acquired a dungeon, then other houses would be tripping over themselves just to gain an audience with Uther or his children.

"Understood, but may I ask how long it will be before Arthur can reach me, the dungeon would be the least of our problems with the Ushenk ogre clans ranging nearby."

Arthur is the older half-brother of Ed, tall, handsome, and full of youthful confidence, there was little doubt that he was the perfect heir to the family. And despite the many attempts by Arthur's mother to poison her son against Edward, the two were able to form something of a brotherly bond, and while they disagreed on plenty of things, both would agree that they care for one another.

"Father and I have already begun assembling a force of laborers and craftsmen that will begin construction on an outpost, from there we will begin planning out the construction of a fortress town. Once the outpost is established, you and I will begin negotiating with the ogres, they have been upholding their side of the treaty so there shouldn't be too much trouble."

That was a rather optimistic view of things, the Ushenk clans were on the better side of things as ogres go, but just because you only cannibalize other ogres isn't as much of a comfort as they think it is. That being said, however, the Ushenk clans signed an agreement to not raid and eat the Nightingale's people or livestock and in return, the ogres could join the empire's war efforts, which might sound like it heavily favors the family but ogres typically worship Kruul, the god of orderly war who is worshiped through honorable combat between two formal enemies, and with the reports of there being Kruul clerics and perhaps even a paladin among the ogres the deal seems more equal. Regardless, the ogres were a lesser problem than the dungeon, if Ed wasn't careful with it then not only could he lose his life, but the dungeon might go into a frenzy from his attempted suppression.

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"I've already prepared the funds for the journey, buy as you need and keep the rest, and additionally I am giving you permission to use the, exotic, magic you learned at the academy. All I ask is that you keep it contained to the mountain, we don't need a Holy March on our hands."

Father and son frown, with Arthur simply giving a disapproving grunt as an answer, the exotic magic Uther is referring to is Edward's innate magical alignment, that of infernal magic. Infernal magic from an academic standpoint was simply just another form of magic with more dangerous aspects than others, but to those without magic and those ignorant to the workings of magic, infernal magic became the 'evil' magic, having been the magic used for many planar incursions by archdemons and their followers. When Ed first learned of his magical alignment, he thought that it would get him cast out of the academy and thrown in jail, thankfully his professor was able to help him out of the panic, showing him how to use his talents safely. Despite this help, however, the looming threat of someone calling a Holy March on him was ever-present during those years, with such a thing having happened just a decade prior when a student hid a relatively harmless fear mimic in a teacher's wardrobe. Last that was heard from him he had been executed by the Seven Gods Church for heresy and terrorism.

Ed would use the next few days to prepare for the journey, going into town to buy various travel necessities and such, until finally, the day had come to set out for the dungeon.

"[Conjure Lesser Flying Mount]"

A mid-tier conjuration spell, finding, pulling, and controlling a helbeast from the infernal realm, glowing blue runes formed a large circle from which a familiar beast comes, a Coalwing. It wasn't a very powerful creature, coalwings aren't used much by demons or devils outside of a quick and dirty ride, but in the Prime Material, they were a staple for infernal conjurers, unfortunately though, my thoughts on it were cut short by the drawing of swords, seems that few can appreciate helbeasts.

"It's alright, it's under my control and besides, coalwings aren't that aggressive, for infernals that is."

Arthur just gave me a face that just screams 'really'.

"I don't doubt your ability to control the beast son, but its presence is a risk regardless of its danger, you better make it there quickly. Your brother will be joining you in three months, after which you will proceed with the plan."

Nodding, my brother and I grasped each other by the forearms.

"Maybe with you gone the family might start acting right."

"Hah, fat chance that is, soon as I'm gone, they'll start harping you about banishing me."

And with that, I mounted my steed, ascending high above the trees and close to the clouds, and pointed towards my destination.

The journey itself wasn't all that eventful, eight days of travel and rest got dull exceptionally quickly, and with little else to do, I just practiced magic, a hobby of mine as well as a necessity. All magic is founded on the concept that power comes with a price, so says the great gods of magic, and to get something you must give something, normally it's just mana but some magic such as infernal, have additional prices or conditions. Those with a talent for the infernal must take care to not become infernal, this is because using the magic of fiends slowly transforms the user bit by bit over decades, actually it's been known to happen over a couple of years for those that used it excessively, but once the transformation is done the person will be anchored to the infernal plane and be dragged from the Prime Material into Perdition.

Despite this however infernal magic is also powerful, almost to an excess in fact, the coalwing I summoned was only a lesser helbeast, not even a proper demon, and far from a devil, but already it was capable of killing scores of soldiers, albeit those without the proper equipment and training. Even with such a powerful tool, however, I'm still unsure if I could solo a dungeon, even with the aid of a pull party of helbeasts as dungeons were notorious for producing creatures capable of far more than their more natural counterparts were.

Seeing the mountains just in the distance, I began to slowly descend to the ground, making sure not to draw any more attention to myself than necessary and switched from my coalwing to a more suitable mount for the environment, a Bile Bear, an ursine creature formed from the Rotting Ring, a region of the infernal plane. It was far from an attractive beast, but it was powerful and despite the boils and sacks of acidic bile covering its body, it was exceptionally durable. Crawling up the mountain toward the dungeon entrance, the location supplied by the augurs, I came across a strange scene, a line of metal dogs things were dragging scattered animal carcasses toward the entrance, the entrance itself was a simple doorway constructed from a mixture of bronze and iron, with strange devices that reminded me of the gnomish inventions my father once bought as a gift for some capital noble, but it was too far up, how could anything get int there?

But as soon as I tried to get a better look they spotted me, at first getting into a defensive stance in front of the entrance before slowly backing up onto a strange metal platform, I thought perhaps it was similar to Mage's Paradise, a dungeon that utilized magic heavily, but instead the ground began to lift towards the entrance, taking the monster dogs up and into the dungeon before the strange metal plate descended back onto the ground.

I decided to retreat and get ready to explore it tomorrow, it would be foolish to try and explore it after eight days of almost straight travel, and I would need to be alert for any strange and unknown traps it may contain.