“I told you I felt a change in the mana flow!” Alerio said excitedly. “There really is a Dungeon here!”

“It would seem so, yeah.” Noracin said. He turned to the rest of his party. “Alright, we listened to Alerio and confirmed that there indeed was a new Dungeon nearby. The question now is what do we do about it? Challenge or report?

“Challenge.” Alerio said immediately. Emmalia and Ceria however were more reserved, both with thoughtful frowns on their faces.

“It’s risky Challenging a Dungeon you don’t know anything about.” Emmalia said. “I know from my father that many young people Challenge too eagerly, and end up paying the price for it.”

“Adventuring as a career is risky.” Alerio countered. “And how are we supposed to improve if we don’t take any risks? The Gods favor the bold, as they say.”

“We are all level 10. Beating any Tier 1 Floor would give us the right to Tier up.” Ceria added.

“That too.” Alerio nodded eagerly. “Come on guys? Aren’t you tired of being stuck at level 10? I know I am. And without any other Dungeons nearby, we’d have to travel all the way to Alash to even have the chance of Challenging their Dungeon.”

“The Challenge isn’t the only way to Tier up.” Emmalia said. “There are other ways, ways that are safer and don’t involve delving blindly into a Dungeon you know nothing about.”

“Adventurers shouldn’t be afraid of taking risks’.” Alerio quoted.

Noracin couldn’t help but sympathize with Emmalia’s worries, but Alerio was also not wrong. Being adventurers at the peak of their Tier this was when they were supposed to Challenge a Dungeon. To prove themselves worthy of advancing to the higher levels. He frowned, his mind agreeing with Emmalia, but his heart with Alerio. He turned to their Fighter for a hopeful deciding vote.

“What do you think, Ceria? Do we Challenge or go back home?”

She thought for a moment. “I…”

Her words stopped abruptly when a sudden System alert appeared in front of each of their eyes.

Quest Received! “Welcome to a New Dungeon!”

The Dungeon Veos wishes you welcome into his halls, and is eager to meet your challenge. As the first people to enter the Dungeon, Veos will grant you all a bonus Reward for challenging this Floor in the form of Two [Talent Points] each, as well as 1 [Armor Chest], if you begin the challenge Floor within 1 hour!

Time Remaining: 59:51

“Well now this is definitely something…” Noracin said, his surprise clear in his voice.

“We have to try it now.” Alerio said.

“Okay, this can not be normal.” Emmalia said. “Something is definitely up with this Veos.”

“You’re partially right about that. But he isn’t just strange, he’s spectacular.” Alerio said, turning a wide grin towards the other members of the party. “We can’t not try this now. We’d get more than the normal clear reward even if we don’t finish the whole Floor! I’ve never heard of this kind of reward being offered before. Ever.”

“It’s clear to me”, Noracin said. “That this Veos seems extremely eager for us to challenge it right away for whatever reason.”

“Maybe he’s young and impatient?” Alerio said. Ceira scoffed but Alerio pressed on. “I’m serious. I don’t know much of the more advanced stuff about Dungeons but I do know that young Dungeons are very eager, both to be Challenged and to expand. And we concluded that this probably was a young Dungeon, so…”

“I get it, the Dungeon’s special.” Emmalia said.

“Yeah, but you’re missing part of the point. This Dungeon is special special. And I think it might be insulting of us not to Challenge it after this kind of gesture. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to end up on the Blacklist of what could be the most popular Dungeon in the whole southern region.”

“Surely that’s an exaggeration.” Ceria said, then paused and furrowed her brow as she thought about the Quest again. “Three Hells it might not be. Gods what have we found here?”

“An opportunity.” Alerio said. “Or maybe eternal regret if we end up missing out.”

“I hate to say it, since he’s going to be smug about it for weeks, but Alerio’s winning me over here.” Ceria said, and even Emmalia seemed to waver at the possibility of being Blacklisted. Noracin inspected the faces of his party thoroughly, and saw a gradual change from worry to determination across two faces. And one was just grinning the entire time. He sighed.

“He’s convinced me as well.” He said. “Emmalia, you too?”

She glared at Alerio. “Damnation. Yes, he did.”

“A Challenge it is, then.” Noracin said. “Let’s hold a strategy meeting, make sure everyone knows their roles, and see what this new Dungeon is so eager to show us.”

Five minutes later Noracin had taken up the rear as the party took their first steps into the Dungeon. Emmalia led the way, using her enhanced Perception to scout for any traps or other dangers. Right behind her was Ceria with her shield held high, ready to leap forward at the first sign of trouble to take the hit for the Rogue. Alerio walked a bit further behind, almost right in front of Noracin, and was focused on feeling the direction of the mana flows.

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The slope gradually leveled out into a round-ish cavern. The ground was rough and seemed unworked, with stalagmites and stalactites hanging down from the ceiling or pointed up from the ground throughout. He could hear the faint sound of water droplets falling from the stalagmites down onto a pool of water below, in the center of the small cavern. The water took up most of the floor area but there was a narrow path around it leading to three different branching paths out of the chamber. He called for Emmalia to halt and turned to face Alerio.

“Which way?” he asked. The Mage shut his eyes and focused, his arm gradually raising seemingly of its own free will and pointing straight ahead.

“That one is faster, but they all lead to the next Floor. No dead ends.”

“Yet.” Emmalia said, to which Noracin grunted agreement. “So which way, boss?”

“I told you not to call me that.” Noracin said. He thought for a moment. “Anyone have a problem with the straight-on approach?”

“Not me.” Ceria said. The others gave their assent as well, and the party started down the center path. The gray and brown of the cave became darker and darker as the light from outside grew further and further behind. Noracin tsked at the Dungeon not providing any light.

“Wait a moment.” Noracin held out a hand and activated a Skill.

“[Orb of Light].” He called out, letting his party members know what was happening. “I’ll walk alongside you, Emmalia. Ceria you take the lead.”

“Got it, boss.” Ceria said. Emmalia laughed as Noracin walked up beside her.

The two of them exited the cave into a narrow passage that gradually narrowed, before widening back out again.

“Hold!” Emmalia hissed. “Listen…”

A soft sound like shifting leaves rustling overhead drew Noracin’s attention upwards, and with the aid of his [Orb of Light] he could see the roost of bats hanging down from the ceiling.

“Great…” Ceria muttered. “Bats.”

“It is a cave. Bats make sense.” Alerio said.

“I know. I just wish there weren't so many of them.” She grumbled.

“Why aren’t they attacking?” Emmalia asked, looking up. “We’re standing right under them.”

“The light, maybe? They don’t have the element of surprise anymore.” Noracin suggested.

“That doesn’t seem…”

Emmalia was interrupted by a shout from Alerio, causing Noracin to whirl around to face the Mage, a [Healing Touch] ready in his hands. He found Alerio staring back the way they had come, towards the first cave. As he took his first step towards him, suddenly the bats overhead flapped their wings and dove down towards the party as one. Ceria immediately yelled out, activating her [Taunt] and drawing the majority of the bats towards her. Emmalia spun and the steel of her daggers flashed as they whirled around, each swipe hitting a bat and taking its life. Noracin swung his mace over his head, but was mostly focused on getting to Alerio, who had pressed himself to the side of the cavern wall to be out of range of whatever was attacking them from behind. His eyes were on the bats flying overhead, and his [Flame Bolt] made short work of those that dared stray too close. Despite that there were many bats; some were bound to get a hit in. And when they did Noracin let himself relax a bit. They barely did any damage. That meant Ceria and Emmalia could handle themselves for a while.

“Are you good on health? What hit you?” He called as he finally got to Alerio. The Mage paused in his barrage to meet his eyes with a smile.

“Water I think. And yeah, it didn’t even do 20 damage.”

Noracin nodded, canceling his Skill and raising his mace to fight in earnest.

Once the surprise had worn off, the party made short work of the flock of bats. Whether by fire, mace, sword, or dagger, a single hit would lead to a kill more often than not. And what few bats managed to land their own attacks through their armor barely moved their health bars.

Noracin slammed down on the final bat with a heavy crunch that ended as swiftly as it began when the summoned creature dissipated into motes of mana, then stood back and took a deep breath.

“Everyone good?” He said. When everyone nodded he added. “Let’s move away from the water then.”

Everyone agreed, and Emmalia led the party further along the passage until it curved away from the entrance. Once they were out of sight from the water Noracin had them stop to go over the battle. Everyone’s status was good, almost full even, but the encounter still led to a lively discussion.

“...Considering the damage we took I’d say neither the bats and whatever the things in the water were couldn’t have been much higher than level 1. Like 3 at the most.” Alerio said.

“Agreed.” Ceria said. “My [Taunt] is normally way less useful on a large number of enemies, but these ones flocked to me like flies to a corpse.”

Noracin frowned. “Why keep them all at level 1?” He asked.

“Maybe the Dungeon doesn’t know how to increase their level directly? If he’s young and we’re his first Challengers like the Quest said…” Ceria said.

Alerio scoffed. “That’d be a sight. A Dungeon that can create Quests but can’t do level management.” He shook his head.

“It might be true.” Ceria insisted.

“I think it’s more likely that since Veos hasn’t had any challengers before he has deliberately kept its levels low as he doesn’t know exactly how dangerous the encounters are yet. Keeping everything at a low level gives more room to tweak the difficulty later until he gets it right.” Alerio said.

Noracin nodded at that. That made sense, and was in line with what they had already found out about the Dungeon in that it was well above average in intelligence and awareness for its age.

“That could be it.” He said. “Though we still should keep our guard up. Maybe the later enemies will be a higher level.”

Everyone nodded at that, and the party once more started their advance. Emmalia in front with Noracin, Alerio in the center trying to sense the right way to go, and Ceria in the rear ready to defend the Mage in case of an ambush. They crossed two more chambers similar to the one where they had entered without issue. No bats in the ceiling, and no attacks from the water. The only danger was a smattering of pitfalls throughout the various passages, though with Emmalia at the head they weren’t a real issue. Noracin still made sure to make a mental note of their locations though. Most parties wouldn’t have a Rogue with a Perception enhancing Glyph at the front, and to them these traps could be deadly. For this party though, all they did was make their advance a bit slower. Especially now that they had determined that the bats weren’t a real threat to them, enabling Emmalia to focus almost solely on the ground in front of them as they walked.

After five minutes of honestly rather boring delving, Alerio signaled for a halt as one passage was starting to widen out into a full cavern again.

“This one feels different.” He said. “I think the way to the next Floor is somewhere in there.”

“Then the Guardian is there too.” Noracin said. “Stay sharp. With the cave aesthetic and the bats the Guardian is probably bat-like itself. Keep your eyes on the roof. And remember; Guardians are always at the max level for their Floor. No level 1’s anymore.”

Everyone nodded, their faces becoming more serious and grips on weapons tensing. After a nod from each of them that they were ready, Noracin signaled for Ceria to advance into the room. He followed right behind, his [Orb of Light] held high, and his gaze scanning the roof and walls of this final chamber. Appearance wise it wasn’t much different from any of the previous ones, except for it being slightly larger, to the point where even with his light he couldn’t make out the details of the far wall. But there was something about the aura that still made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

“Movement.” Emmalia called out. “Up there, near the ceiling. There seems to be small tunnels in it.”

“Everyone get…” Noracin began, but was interrupted by a screeching cry from above them. Then a second later half a dozen jets of water sailed out of the darkness of the cave, heading straight for them. Ceria instantly stepped forward, raising her shield.

“COMBAT!” Noracin yelled, raising his mace and readying a [Healing Touch].

The real Challenge was about to begin.