Dante quickly sent a friend request to Nathan and got him added to his party.

As they approached the door Dante looked at the door but saw nothing besides what appeared to be a blank slab of stone within the large empty doorway.

As the legion arrived at the door to the dungeon, they were greeted by a notice.

You are standing before the enterance to the "Lion's Den" a D-rank dungeon. By entering this dungeon you will be automatically begin the Beginner dungeoneering section of the tutorial.

Dante and the other's in the legion with the exception of Nathan and Califa, appeared to have recieved the notice. Upon a closer look there seemed to be a shimmer to the air within the otherwise empty arched doorway.

Dante smiled for a moment then stepped forward and motioned for the other's to follow as he stepped through the doorway.

What greeted Dante as he stepped through wasn't what he had been expecting.

He had been expecting dark cold worked stone halls, not a bright and sunny grassland.

Congratulations! You have discovered that not all dungeons are as you have come to believe. You have taken your first steps towards learning of Beginner Dungeoneering.

Congratulations the Road of Dungeon Exploration I has opened to you!...

Stepping away from the door to give the other's room to exit Dante activated Eagles sight scanning the distance for any immediate threats.

All he could see for as far as he could see was grassland with a sparce number of tree's scattered here and there.

As his party member's passed through the doorway they all expressed their awe and confusion at the sight before them.

Eagles Sight has leveled up! Lvl. 7...

Dante flicked off Eagles sight after a moment.

As Nathan stepped through his immediate question was, "Why does this place look like we're in africa?"

"I want to know that as well let me ask my guide. Virgil!" Dante responded and then excalimed.

He felt as his mana began to shift and the familiar being of radiant golden light known as Virgil made his appearance.

"Please state the nature of your inquiry Dante." Virgil asked smiling with his small circlet of silver light resting upon his head.

"Why does this place look like..."

"Dante look at this!" James said raising his voice.

Concerned Dante turned in James' direction only to find him looking at some birds flying through the air. Dante was about to aske him why he was so concerned but then he noticed it.

His eyes retrained upon the birds for several seconds only reaffirming what he had thought. "Those birds are stuck in the air."

Dante and the legion all looked back in the direction of the doorway to find it standing there. However what laid behind the, now colorful, arched doorway appeared to be a large flock of birds hovering in midair.

"Virgil, please explain?" Dante asked simply.

"Certainly. What you are witnessing is the effect of time dialation in action. The moment this dungeon was formed it was connected to your tutorial zone. To prevent needless hassles the system has forced this dungeon to accelerate to meet the level time dialation present within the tutorial zone."

Dante didn't immediately respond instead he took a moment to soak in that information before deciding to conduct an experiment.

Using telekenisis his picked up a small rock from the ground and flung it at one of the birds. As he had thought the rock rebounded off an invisible barrier. Repeating this several times showed Dante that the door they had come through was at the border of this barrier.

Congratulations! By your examinations of the dungeon barrier 1 point has been entered into the Road of Dungeon Exploration I...

The rest of the group began to express their desire for diretion towards Dante and James. The two looked at each other whilst trying to quiet the other's down.

"Ok guys let's start heading away form the door in a straight line and see if we can find something to hunt or any structures to explore....Virgil is this dungeon in Africa?" Dante paused before asking as seeing outside the barrier gave him the impression there was surely more than just grasslands beyond the boder of the dungeon.

"Yes this dungeon has spawned upon the continet of Africa on Earth..." Virgil paused as someone yelled out.

"No wonder is so fucking hot!" was a sentiment expressed by Reo and then many other's in the group. All the while Dante felt a bit warmer than he would have liked but it wasn't too bad for him.

'Endure the Elements for the win! I wonder if its just going to level in here?' Dante mused for he spoke, "Well that's good to know. At least we know we may have to fight prides of lions, herds of water buffalo, and avoid rivers and other large bodies of water." Dante said with both entusiasm and mild concern.

"I hope we find a honey badger." Jacob said smiling like a chimp.

"Oh be quiet Ash Katchum!" James said with a smile.

Without missing a beat he replied, "Gotta Catch Em All!" Jacob shouted smiling even wider as he pumped his fist in the air.

Everyone laughed at that except Califa who simply looked confused. In response Dante simply waved it off, stating, "I'll try to explain later."

Virgil grew closer to Dante before he continued. "According to my information This dungeon has been covered by the system in a dome as to prevent a nearby village of newly uplifted beings from destruction. The dome however seems to have grown by 10 times since it was put in place! That can only mean that this dungeon has already killed a number of players and consumed them." Virgil stated worriedly. He grew silent for a moment.

"It will be fine Virgil. With me here there isn't that much to worry about." Dante said as he placed a hand upon Virgil's shoulder trying to reasure him.

Virgil looked upon him for a moment before saying, "You are currently ranked the 9th most powerful person of Earth. Additionally you are currently ranked the 2nd most powerful cleric of Earth..." Virgil paused for a moment and Dante weighed that information in his mind.

'Am I really that strong? Shit...Well at least I will stand a fighting chance when those Crimson king Cultists come for me again.' he thought before Virgil spoke again.

"This is a D-rank dungeon. To make it this far in such a short period of time, this dungeon must have consumed dozens of players. It's more than that though. It must have enslaved dozens of creatures as it expanded over them." Virgil's expression was that of grave concern and yet when he looked to Dante, there was hope.

'This place is turning animals into monster's...I would have been warry of normal animals from Africa. Now...' Dante felt his legs begin to shake but he quickly instilled his will upon his body and forced his legs to cease their shaking. "If only I could get a higher..." He paused as he looked to Virgil hovering off the ground before him and he got an idea.

Congratulations you have earned the achievement, "Unconventional Wisdom"...

Unconventional Wisdom- Sometimes you just can't get by with conventional wisdom. For those times when the going gets tough you think outside the box. +5 Wisdom...

Dante smiled as he took the notice as reassurance his idea was pure gold. "Virgil how high can you fly?"

Virgil raised a hand and opened his mouth to respond, in that pause he took a moment to weigh the question. Then he smiled and laughed.

---------------

"So the basics are that as a Dungeon Master I can use many of the skills normally only available to dungeon cores like converting materials into mana and DP, dungeon points. But converting things like rock doesn't give much of either. I am told feeding the corpses of monsters and...players gives far more." Nathan paused as he shivered, unsetteled by the thought of feeding the bodies of people to his core.

"Dungeons can clear out large spaces by converting materials into mana. Corspes give points based on the creatures strength. Not the stat but a measure of their sum total power physical and magical." He said finishing his rather short explanation to the more in depth Dungeon Master system he had access to.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Why not try the ground thing now?" David asked from up towards the front of the group causing everyone to stop for a moment as they turned to look at Nathan.

"Fine." He said as he reached into the sleeve of his robe and pulled out his dungeon core. Taking a knee he pressed his palm to the ground but nothing seemed to happen until a moment later he jumped a little as a blue box appeared before him. As he read the notice he frowned before standing and replacing the core within his robes. "I can't do it here due to the other dungeon core being stronger than mine. It also noted my stats weren't enought to make up the difference..." He said looking rather annoyed.

Dante walking besides him look towards him and said, "Well if the monsters here aren't very valuable we can try feeding them to your core. I'm wondering if there's a boss and what it is if there is one."

"I'm willing to bet it's a massive lion." James called back with a smile

"Yeah me too..." Dante said reservedly as his eyes began to scan the horizon.

Dante looked up to see Virgil flying 50 feet above them. Having cast sending, Dante spoke while looking up to see the small etheral looking golden orb that was incognito Virgil, "How's it looking up there Virgil?"

"All seems well so far. I see a large herd of water buffalo in the distance but they seem to be heading away from us. I can see a large river though judging how far it is precisely, is another matter entirely." As Virgil said this he forced images across the connection of what he was seeing. What surprised Dante was when he leveled up.

You have leveled up!...

"Keep up the good work Virgil!" Dante said as he began to check his status, seeing the fruits of his and Virgil's labor.

Virgil's scanning with Eagle's Sight for the last half hour had gained him 3 levels in the skill.

He also gained 2 levels in Endure the Elements from the oppressive heat and 8 levels in Cartography from all his sight seeing.

Dante A. Stone Race: Human Class: Cleric Lvl. 32 EXP: 232/6,500 (Available Currency)

Stats

Resources

Total

Regen.

Strength

108

Health

(2,107+20=2,127)

(102.9x2=

205.8/min)

Constitution

116

Mana

(3,018+20=3,038)

(97.2/min)

Endurance

113

Stamina

(1,806+20=1,826)

(91.7x2= 183.4/min)

Dexterity

102

Road Points

37

Willpower

130

Stat Points

1

Intellect

116

Luck

159

Wisdom

133

Perception

105

Charisma

115

Spirit

115

--------------------

Dante called out to stop as he was informed by Virgil of creatures up ahead.

"Alright guys I've seen our first targets. There are about...8 lion's chilling under a tree. I think they are about a quarter, maybe a third of a mile away. Let me cast a buff on a couple of you guys and then we can get close and take them down."

'I have enough points to complete the Road of Earth II. Should I do it right now? No I should wait.' Dante thought as he considered what to give and to whom.

Dante raised up his hands but then put them down again. "What do each of you guys want boosted, what stat?"

Each rattled off this or that as he forced them to pick a single stat and then he began to pioritize who would be the most useful in this fight.

Reo chose Dex, David and James both chose strength. Dante chose to conduct an experiment and gave Jacob INT, WIS, and SPI. "We are going to see just how powerful that astral form of yours can be with some serious buffs. I'm not going to cast it on myself as I'll be running crowd control and my stats are already the highest here."

James looked up and asked the one burning question no one had dared to ask, "How high are your stats?"

Dante smiled as he opened up his status and with a wave of his hand it appeared before everyone.

Everyone was in stunned silence and so Dante took this time to speak. "I owe a lot of those stats to my items. Without them I would probably be dead right now, no...something far worse would have befallen me." Dante's once cheerful attitude evaporated as he recalled his frieghtening encounter with the Crimson King.

How he had nearly been overshadowed by the king and how that would have resulted in his very life and body being stolen. His gaze grew distant and his expression became one of great agitation.

James looked up from the blue box before him and stepped forward to slap Dante on the back. "Don't worry so much man. You're still here. You still have your familiy and friends like us." He said with a warming smile.

Dante looked to him with a bitter smile as he tried to shake off the memory.

"So what does the hat give you?" James continued.

Dante willed the crown to return to its normal form causing a collective gasp from most of the other members of the legion. The exception being James, who simply raise an eyebrow and raise part of his lip revealing his canine teeth. Among those who already knew from among them, those being Califa and Virgil.

Dante grimaced at the bright sunlight streaming down upon his eyes now that he no longer had the cowboy hat to protect them.

Congratulations! Your skill, Endure the Elements, has leveled up! Lvl. 4...

With a single motion Dante grasped the air and moved his hand from left to right before the crown. In a 2 seconds the crown had returned to the golden hat form, thus shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight.

"Most of the stats are from the crown. Before you ask yes it's the reason I can cast such high level spell's. It boosts my stats to the point where I can cast such large spells. However, I don't think I can cast 8th level spell's yet. Anyway, let's get down to business!" Dante proclaimed as he clapped his hands togethere and rubbed them. He reached out to Virgil only then did he realize that Virgil and his sending spell had both expired while he had been talking to the other's. 'Oops.' He thought.

"Alright then, the lions are that way...So let's get this done. Enhance Ability at 7th level!" Dante proclaimed as he felt his mana beginning to pour forth from him.

As he held what each person was to recieve in his mind he felt his mana connect with theirs and he watched in delight at the results.

Reo seemed more or less unaffected by the spell though he watched her feet as she began to jump around to test her newly increased Dex. What surprised and slightly scared him was that her feet didn't make a sound. Flicking on true sight showed him a soft blue glow around her feet.

What happened to the other's was more obvious. David and James both grew larger as their muscles swelled with new found strength. Additionally a pair of ethereal golden bulls horns appeared on each of them. They each looked at each other then felt for their own pair before laughing about the odd development.

Then there was Jacob. His eyes caught light as golden light began to eminate from him. A moment later a 5 meter tall golden bear stood before them on its hind legs with Jacob floating within its chest.

Next to him two ethereal creatures appeared. One, a large owl, and the other, a small tanned fox. The fox seemed to step from nowhere while the owl arrived looking as if it were just coming in to land.

Both these creatures looked to Dante then up to Jacob floating several feet above. A moment later the fox stepped forward and was absorbed into the golden light of the bear form. The owl on the other hand took a few hops forward and poked its head into the leg of the golden bear only to be absorbed as well.

'That was an interesting reaction between his class and the spell...' Dante thought for a moment before Jacob looked down to him and said, "The Spirits thank you. Also, thanks for 2 free levels and I can cast enhance ability too so you know. Though not to this degree." said Jacob. His expession joyous but then they heard it.

Before anyone else could speak several great roars could be heard as they turned to see the 8 lions no longer resting beneath the tree. Instead they were racing towards Dante and the rest of them through the sea of dull brown grass. One thing was abundently clear now that the lions were running towards them.

"Those are some big fucking lions! Ok Reo, James, David, and Jacob. You guys do full frontal assault. I'll take up the rear with Herald and Nathan to provide crowd control and backline support...GO!" Dante exclaimed as the need for decisive action was now. Immediately everyone but James raced off to face the lions. James hung back for a moment and simply smiled before he too charged forward, quickly gaining speed.

Congratulations! Your skill, Leadership, has leveled up! Lvl. 6...

Congratulations! Your skill, Leadership, has leveled up! Lvl. 7...

Congratulations! Your skill, Leadership, has leveled up! Lvl. 8...

Dante smiled as he looked back towards Herald and Nathan, "Ready guys?"