"That was a long two weeks." Kyle groaned as the group closed the door to the room they had rented at the guild.

"It wasn't that bad." April responded. "None of the quests were hard."

"Luckily we don't really have to rest." Garrett added. "Besides, according to Nyathanial it usually takes about a month to raise to 'E' rank."

"I know, but some of those quests were just annoying. How was I supposed to know that the rats in that old lady's house were her pets. She asked us to investigate some growling and then those rats tried to eat me."

"I'm pretty sure they were just sniffing you." Blixie said.

"Well, if something bigger than you got up in your face you would be scared too." Kyle shot back.

Blixie just stared at him. "First, almost everything is bigger than I am. Second, you have a face?" Blixie giggled.

"Ha ha." Kyle said sarcastically. "At least we can finally start taking quests for the dungeon and see what it is like to go through one."

"Only the first and second floor though." Garrett said. "The quests for floors lower than that are higher ranked than we can take."

"I always enjoyed crawling through the dungeons on our adventures." April said cheerfully. "It will be like old times."

Blixie looked at April quizzically. "Wait, I'm confused. I thought you didn't have magic in your old world, but you still had dungeons?"

The others chuckled. "Not actual dungeons Blixie." April said. "How can I explain this. Do you have any games here in this world?"

"Games? We have colosseums where people can pit their strength against others." Blixie replied.

"I mean games of chance or strategy?"

"Oh." Blixie perked up. "We have cards that are used for various forms of gambling, and I there is a game some royalty play called Conquest that is played using small figures that represent various military units. They move them across a board to simulate real world skirmish scenarios."

"Great." April said cheerfully. "So, we had games similar to Conquest except that there were several people playing together in a team, called players, with only one playing piece each. They would play against one person, called the game master or dungeon master depending on the game, that would have several pieces. The game master would lay out scenarios that the players would then have to work through, which would sometimes include mock dungeons."

Blixie's eyes lit up in fascination. "That sounds amazing." She then sat in the air with her chin in her hand. "I wonder if we could bring that idea to the higher ups in the guild to help train up the lower ranked members. I bet they would pay a lot for that." Her eyes glittered with greed. "We would be rich." She exclaimed.

"But if we do that, then wouldn't the dungeons lose out on the experience needed to grow?" Kyle asked.

"Unlike most races, dungeons are practically immortal as long as their core remains intact, so if it takes a few more years or even decades to upgrade, the dungeons won't care." Blixie replied in her teacher voice. "On the flip side it would allow the adventurers to grow and become stronger so when they do eventually die in a dungeon, they would provide more experience which might even allow for roughly the same amount of experience in the long run."

"It sounds like a good deal for both sides." Garrett said. "But I don't think any of the guild's leaders would listen to a fresh band of rank 'E' adventurers so it will have to wait. We will head down to see what quests are available to us and then head into the dungeon in the morning."

The group sat down and practiced their skills. They had been doing this for the last couple of weeks during the nights they stayed in the guild hall after handing in quests. Though the progress on raising their skills levels had slowed to a crawl. Nyathanial had been very surprised to see they had completed the required number of quests to rank up in only two weeks.

The light on a crystal that stood on the nightstand beside the bed steadily drained, like sands in an hourglass, as the night drew on. Blixie had explained that the solar crystal as they were called, helped people keep track of time when underground or when the sun was not visible for extended periods. The crystals light crept up the crystal as morning arrived. The group headed down to check out the quests when the figured it was about eight o'crystal.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Good morning!" Nyathanial called out to them as they approached. "Getting an early start today since you can finally enter the dungeon?" He asked with enthusiasm.

"Yup." Garrett replied. "I can't wait to go on my first dungeon run. What would be some good quests to take for a first time?"

"Well," Nyathanial paused to think. "There is always a need for ore mined from the dungeon if you have the skill for it, and before you ask, no you can't just move the dirt around it with earth shaping skills."

"Do earth shaping skills not work in dungeons?" Garrett asked worried that his main means of attacking would be cut off.

"They do, it's just that the dirt around ore veins behaves rather oddly with earth magic but no one has been able to figure out why." Nyathanial shrugged. "Best guess is that the gods didn't want it to be too easy for us to get the ore. The clerics say that the gods make dungeons to challenge mortals and help us grow in proportion to our efforts."

"Why do people say it is the gods that create the dungeons?" Garrett asked.

Nyathanial just stared blankly at him. "You're joking right? Didn't your mother teach you about the gods and dungeons, yet you still chose to be an adventurer?"

"You'll have to forgive him." Blixie jumped in. "He's been suffering from amnesia since I found him in the woods a few months ago. He could barely remember his name." She sighed. "I was surprised he hadn't been eaten by wolves to be honest with you."

Nyathanial's face softened in empathy. "Poor dear." He said. "Well, the dungeons are usually themed or feel inspired by a certain god. Like our local dungeon you'll get to go explore today is inspired by Gra'tok'ta. The dwarven god of smithing and the earth. There are veins of different ores on the various levels with the rarer ores being deeper down and sparser than the common ores on the first couple of floors. Besides that, the monsters you will encounter are versions of creatures you would typically find underground, including moles and badgers and such."

"Well thanks for the explanation. Since my earth shaping skills would be useless for that and I don't think squishy would fare any better, what other quests are there." Garrett asked with renewed interest.

"There are quests to protect miners that don't have combat-oriented skills and a few quests to acquire various items dropped by the monsters inside." Nyathanial replied. "Just bring over the ones that sound interesting to you." He said as he waived them down the wall of quest postings.

After perusing the available quests Garrett decided on a few that he figured they could accomplish and get a good feel for how going through a dungeon is in this world. One was a posting that asked for several mole steaks for a local butcher and one that asked for mole whiskers and claws for an alchemist. He figured that finishing two quests with one mole was a good deal. He found one that asked for pieces of ant carapace for a local armorer and finally one quest that asked for certain mushrooms for a local grocer.

Garrett took the quests over to Nyathanial to load on to his guild card and asked for directions to the dungeon entrance. Nyathanial told them to take a right as they exited the guild and follow the street until they got there. The group followed Nyathanial's directions and after about ten minutes of following the side street they came upon a rather small plaza along the wall of the cavern that several other roads converged into. Two guards that resembled the guards that guarded the main entrance into the city flanked an opening that was not much bigger than the doors to the guild hall. A long line of adventurers stood outside the opening chatting amongst themselves. There were several adventurers that Garrett recognized from the guild hall as well as some adventurers he had not seen before.

"Hey Garrett." a voice called out. Garrett looked toward the back of the line and saw a large bearded human waving at him, so the group approached.

"Hi Ven." Garrett replied. "What are you after today." Ven was a rank 'C' barbarian that the group had befriended from the guild.

"I'm going after cave spiders on level 4 today." Ven said nonchalantly. "Figured I would take it easy today since my group had other plans. You finally get to go in the dungeon?" He asked.

"Yup."

Ven laughed heartily and slapped Garrett on the back causing Garrett to a stumble forward a little. "Glad to see it lad. Take it slow at first and you won't have to worry too much."

"Thanks Ven." Garrett said as he limped a little, pretending that the slap had hurt. "There are a lot of people I don't recognize here." Garrett said as he looked around. Did they just come in for the dungeon?"

Ven laughed loudly again. "No, no. They are from the other guild halls around the city. I know you just got here a couple of weeks ago, but did you think that there would only be one guild hall in a city this size?"

"Honestly I did." Garrett replied. "How many are there in the city?"

"There are five guild halls throughout the city." Ven explained. "Each one supports different parts of the city, ensuring that all residents can be assisted."

Garrett thought through the quests they had taken the past couple of weeks. "That makes sense. I was kind of wondering why the quests we could take were mostly around the entrance of the city or outside of it."

"Yea. The guild hall we stay at is used mostly by traveling adventurers but the others or used by those that have made a living here in the city." The line of adventurers had been moving rather quickly and soon it was Ven's turn to enter the dungeon. "Well, good luck Garrett. See you back at the hall. First round of drinks is on me to celebrate your first dungeon dive, or in memory of it if you die." He laughed as the guards waved him through the entrance.

Garrett looked at the others. "Alright guys. Let's enjoy of first dungeon crawl here." April clapped her hands together while Kyle waved his tentacles in the air.

"You all are way too excited for this." Blixie chuckled. The guards waved Garretts group through.