As the entire crowd finally settled down, Gidou cleared his throat, before continuing his speech.
"Now then, before we start – allow me to explain how the raid shall take place. All of you shall be granted entry to the dungeon from the only entrance that leads to the dungeon. At the start, you all will enter the dungeon together, no one is allowed to split off to find a different entrance. Everyone must enter through the designated entry." Gidou emphasised that part of the rules, before easing a bit, placing his arms behind his back. "However, once inside the dungeon – you are free to venture on your own and however deep as you wish, the only restriction inside the dungeon is that you are not permitted to challenge the dungeon boss."
We aren't permitted to challenge the boss…?
But then, how are we supposed to 'clear' the dungeon and get out? In my experience, once inside a dungeon, you must defeat the boss of the dungeon in order to be able to leave it.
As those thoughts ventured into my head, an adventurer from the crowd raised his arm. "May I ask why we are not permitted to do so Sir?"
Gidou nodded.
"You may. And the reason is simple – because the boss is far too strong for you all to face. Even the strongest amongst you, will not stand a chance against it."
Another adventurer from the crowd spoke up, his tone a bit hot headed.
"There are so many of us here, a boss wouldn't stand a chance no matter how strong he is." Some of the other, newbie looking adventurers agreed with the man. Gidou sighed, before placing his arms behind his back. "Allow me to make myself clear — you are not permitted to challenge the boss. It is for your own safety that we make this guideline, after all, the boss of the Fire Princes domain is not like any other dungeon boss."
Gidou explained, his stern and strong voice booming over the crowd.
While it seemed the adventurers weren't very convinced by his words, no one spoke out against it – even the man who had spoken in a hot headed tone just moments earlier didn't argue. Gidou scanned the crowd, before clearing his throat. "That said, there is the possibility of someone amongst you getting lost or even accidentally stumbling into the boss room. Should that occur, we are joined today by the A-Rank adventurer known as the Beast Sword, Lyrra Karsh."
Gidou looked at the woman who was standing a few paces away from him. Lyrra bowed gently towards the crowd, the crab on top of her head also bowing. While the adventurer crowd erupted into whispers, I found myself rather surprised by Lyrra's ranking.
Not necessarily because she was stronger than I had expected, rather…
I thought she'd be higher than A-Rank. The way she described and spoke to Charybdis yesterday, made it seem like the beast was a very, very powerful monster – and the magical energy flowing through the creature certainly was basically rivaling the energy I felt flowing through the Southern Beast.
Part of me assumed she would be S-Rank at the minimum.
Then, another adventurer spoke up with a rather timid tone. "P-Pardon! If we're not allowed to challenge the boss, how are we supposed to get out of the dungeon?"
Exactly what I was wondering — thank you, whoever you are.
"Excellent question. Those that are more experienced with dungeon raids already know the answer to this, however allow me to explain for the rookies here." He cleared his throat a bit. "Dungeons such as the Fire Princes domain are known as 'true dungeons' and are unique in many ways, such as the fact that they do not imprison its challengers inside it, meaning that at any point, you are able to back track to the entrance and leave the dungeon." The less experienced adventurers in the crowd looked rather surprised by this explanation, some even appearing doubtful.
I myself was rather intrigued.
The dungeons I've taken on so far have always closed their entrances behind me until I've beaten the boss — and according to what Gidou said, the ones that don't do that are known as 'true dungeons'.
That made me wonder, what exactly causes dungeons to form? And how come there are 'tiers' to them, beyond the normal rankings?
Gidou gestured to Jarvis, who seemingly cleared his throat, before releasing a loud roar which shut the commotion in the crowd down, forcing all the adventurers to refocus onto Gidou. "Didn't know he could do that… Guess it makes sense."
"Now then, with all of that out of the way, let's move onto the other things to know. The raid is scheduled to last around four hours, starting from the moment you enter the dungeon. Within these four hours, you are free to explore as much of the dungeon as you wish, and head as deep as you wish, however you have to make it out before the four hours are up. If you are not out of the dungeon by the time that four hours are up, we will send out personnel to search for you and bring you out, however do note, that getting out later than four hours, will result in a decrease of your score." Gidou explained, sharpening his gaze on the crowd. The adventurers each looked rather nervous, exchanging gazes and laughing lightly.
Then, he continued. "All the artifacts you find in the dungeon are to be handed to the guild – depending on how valuable the artifact is, you will be rewarded accordingly. Anything that isn't an artifact, you are free to keep."
So just bring them that specific item category, but the rest is ours.
Simple to understand. "Has everyone understood everything?"
The crowd remained silent, giving approving nods and nothing more. Gidou closed his eyes, resting his arms onto his hips. "Then, prepare! We shall initiate the move to the dungeon entrance!"
The crowd cheered, while Gidou gestured to the guild staff to move, while he himself and Lyrra moved down to join the crowd. The ones further away from the crowd also moved closer, that of course, included me and Avy. "Try to not lose me in the dungeon…" Avy whispered to me with a worried tone. I sighed, patting her head gently. "Don't worry, I won't."
The guild staff surrounded the crowd, before Jarvis took out a monocle, putting it on. Then, he took out a paper, while the other guild staff raised their arms towards the crowd.
Then, Jarvis began to read off what was on the paper — the other staff repeating it after him. It was most likely a spell incantation. As they began the spell, a large magic circle formed below us — blue in colour, with energy going up from it into the air.
The crowd exploded into a mixed reaction — some excited, some terrified, others calm and collected, some even unfazed. As the spell neared its end, I closed my eyes – also slightly scared of what may happen next. The light of the magic circle below us enveloped us. Then, I felt a bit floaty – like suddenly all of my weight had been removed and the gravitational force on me, had disappeared.
I kept my eyes closed.
Though my curiosity was growing, part of me didn't think it was worth it to open them.
After a bit, the floaty feeling stopped and I once more felt the ground beneath my feet. Opening my eyes, we were in a completely different location now. Replacing the Ordial street in front of the guild building, was now a large, open cavern. The crowd was once more filled with a mixed reaction — some sharing my reaction, while others remained unfazed still.
Gidou brushed off his clothes, before turning around. "Follow me!" He called out to the crowd, before him and Lyrra began to move down, deeper into the cavern. The crowd quickly followed after the two, many of them expressing their excitement.
"Are you okay?" Avy leaned in closer to me.
I rubbed the back of my neck, before stretching out a bit. "I'm fine." I smiled towards her, with Avy letting out a sigh of relief, before turning and following after the crowd. "Come, let's not fall behind."
"Right."
We quickly caught up to the crowd, sticking close to it, while we descended down deeper into the cavern.
While we descended deeper and deeper down, it became harder and harder to believe that this had been below Ordial all this time. The cavern was massive, way, way bigger than any place I had been in up until now… Maybe? The lair me and Avy found in the Abyssal woods where that cult was operating in, was rather massive — but, it wasn't THIS massive!
Descending deeper down, I eventually noticed what must have been our destination, located at the deepest point in this cavern. A huge castle, which was built into the walls of the cavern, with torches lit up around it, illuminating it in the darkness of the cavern.
The castle itself looked rather run down and aged, very clearly having been constructed a long, long time ago. Though, nothing of it looked like rubble or debris, so I suppose it hadn't been destroyed or something.
The crowd was this time with a shared reaction – basically everyone in awe at the sight of the giant castle. Gidou laughed, smiling. "Welcome adventurers, to the Fire Princes domain! Also known as the 'Castle of the Great Fire'." Gidou announced, as all of us arrived at the gates, which separated us from entering the domain itself.
Gidou turned to face the crowd, seemingly doing a quick head count to ensure that everyone was here, afterwards, before turning around and reaching into his coat, taking out a rusted, golden key. Placing it into the lock of the gates, he gently turned it twice to the left, before pushing it in deeper and turning it twice to the right. A fire emblem lit up on the gates, before several torches around the gates lit up. Then, the gates opened, granting entry into the dungeon. Gidou turned to face the crowd again.
"Remember all of what I told you! You have four hours to be in and out of the dungeon. Good luck to you all and may the Dragons bring you fortune!" Gidou announced the crowd cheering on.
Then, he and Lyrra stepped aside, before he nodded towards the woman, who unsheathed her sword and lifted it into the air. "Ready?!"
"Yeah!" The crowd shouted in unison.
Lyrra smiled, before swinging her sword down. "Go!"
With a collective battle cry, the crowd rushed into the dungeon, quickly splitting off into many different groups and disappearing in the halls of the dungeon. Me and Avy also dashed into the dungeon, with me exchanging a slight gaze with Lyrra, who was cheerfully smiling at me.
Shaking my head, I refocused, rushing into the dungeon – and disappearing from sight together with Avy.
Gidou and Lyrra watched as all the adventurers disappeared into the dungeon. Lyrra laughed. "They sure are fired up."
"Well, it's not exactly every day that a dungeon raid occurs, is it?" Lyrra nodded in agreement, resheathing her sword. "True, true…" Gidou moved over to a small boulder near the gates, sitting down and resting his right arm onto his knee. "So, perhaps you could tell me why you decided to join this time around? I mean, I told the crowd that you're here simply to help out, in case someone gets lost, however you applied to the dungeon raid through a receptionist. Why? Surely the caretaker of Charybdis is too busy for such trivial things?"
Lyrra laughed, taking Charybdis off of her head and gently brushing the top of his body. "Well, to put it simply – I was interested in what this place would have. I received a little… 'revelation' let's call it, about someone unique who would participate in the raid."
Gidou raised an eyebrow.
Then, after a bit of pondering, he narrowed his eyes onto her. "Riyo Komeno?"
"Bingo～"
Gidou sighed, shedding as small sweat as he turned his gaze down to the ground. "He must truly be a special man, if an A-rank adventurer is also interested in him…" Lyrra raised an eyebrow. "Also?"
"The Duke requested a meeting with Riyo Komeno a few days ago. Maybe even a week ago now. At the time, I found it strange that he wanted to meet with a newbie adventurer, so I sort of brushed him off."
"You can do that with a duke?" Lyrra laughed nervously, resting against the same boulder Gidou was sitting on. The Guildmaster shrugged. "He may be a duke now, but to me he'll always be the Court Sorcerer of King Kragsos and a trusted companion." Lyrra rolled her eyes, before crossing her arms and exhaling. "Then I assume now that you know I've also taken an interest in him, you'll accept the duke's request?"
"Let's not jump the gun, alright? I still need to verify whether he really is something special or not. I can't just send some ordinary adventurer to the duke now, can I?."
"Right, right…" Lyrra chuckled, before resting Charybdis back onto her head. "Then, do you plan to use this raid as an opportunity to observe him?" Gidou looked away.
"Sort of. I employed a rogue to keep up with him, using his special skills to stay out of sight."
"A rogue…? That's why I felt as though someone was following us the entire time." Gidou laughed.
"Impressive bunch, aren't they? Capable of hiding in plain sight using nothing but shadows. Not even their magical energy remains detectable — of course, unless you are strong enough to see past their little tricks."
"You're sometimes scary…" Lyrra laughed a bit nervously.
Gidou rested a bit onto his knees, his eyes slightly glowing as he looked at Lyrra with a small grin across his face. "I'm a guildmaster and a veteran adventurer. I have a lot of tricks and ideas up my sleeves."
Inside the dungeon…
"Now!" I called out to Avy, before using the shadows around to quickly restrain the monsters in front of us. Avy sprung forth, forming long claws from her hands before easily and swiftly tearing through the monsters that I had restrained. It hadn't even been ten minutes since we entered the dungeon, and yet we encountered massive groups of monsters, one after the other.
Luckily, me and Avy worked together pretty well and effectively — with me mainly using my skills to support her, while she acted as the main attacker. While I was fully capable of defeating these monsters myself as well, Avy had stated that it's better if the two of us worked similarly to a mage and warrior duo, with one of us supporting the other.
And while I didn't possess any skills that would allow me to 'boost' the performance of Avy nor did I know an ounce of magic or sorcery, my skills were very good at restraining, confusing or averting the attention of the monsters. Essentially, I was the 'bait' – dragging away any and all attention from Avy, allowing her clean slices through the hordes.
A loud roar came from the right side, as a large half skeletal, half dark pelted wolf came from the shadows, red eyes shining in its eye sockets.
Undead Direwolf
Rank: B
An undead wolf? That's new.
The beast howled, before rushing towards Avy, who was still mauling through the remaining restrained monsters. Quickly, I formed a small orb of venom beside me, launching several blades of venom towards the wolf — which sliced through its body, allowing Avy to focus onto it and finish it off, cutting it apart in seconds.
I let out a small sigh of relief.
What Avy had in destructive power, she sort of lost in awareness of what was around her. Had I not stepped forward and shot those venom blades, who knows? Maybe the monster would have actually landed a hit on Avy.
…Though, now that I think about it, there was no way that was going to occur even if I hadn't intervened to slow the monster.
Once the monsters in the room were cleared, I took in a deep breath. A familiar voice rung out in my head.
Experience threshold has been reached.
You have risen to level 101.
"A level up? It's been a while since I experienced my previous one… Guess hitting level one hundred drastically increased the amount of 'experience' I needed till the next one." I commented in my mind, before looking towards Avy, who was licking off her talons.
I felt shivers run down my spine.
"Should you be doing that…? Most of that blood on your talons are from the undead…" Avy looked at me, with a bored gaze, before curling her tongue back into her mouth. "It's fine. As the daughter of the Owl Empress, the blood of the undead has no effect on me."
No effect…?
Then I'll take an educated guess on the fact that usually, it'd have some negative drawbacks when coming in contact with people or other living things, that weren't like Avy.
"Let's keep going. I can sense something in the next room." Avy stated, moving past all the dead monsters. I quickly caught up to her, keeping up with her pace. Pushing open the door to the next room, we entered what seemed to be an 'office' type room. There were bookshelves filled with scrolls and old papers with a desk at the end of the room. "Looks like a study." I commented, walking up to one of the bookshelves, examining the scrolls in them a bit more carefully.
"Must be some sort of thing created by the dungeon to sell the idea of a 'castle'." Avy stated, moving over to the desk at the end, looking over it.
While she rummaged over there, I continued looking through the scrolls and papers. Even though Avy said this must have been simply something made to sell the 'idea' of the dungeons castle like appearance, I wasn't very convinced of that. The scrolls actually had writing in them, making them appear more like documents of some other time — I say other time, since the language on them, was incomprehensible to me.
"Maybe these 'documents' count as artifacts…?" I pondered, as I continued to look through them. Then, as I reached up for a scroll on a higher shelf, I accidentally dropped one of the scrolls from a lower shelf. "Clumsy me…" I sighed, leaning down to pick up the scroll.
However, before I even touched it, I noticed its appearance.
It was distinctively different from the other scrolls – a golden 'shell' around it, the shell having carvings on it, which looked a lot like fire swirling around. "This is a unique one… Maybe this is an artifact?"
Picking it up, I examined it, turning it over and finding a small emblem on it – of a flame upon a pedestal — some sort of beacon perhaps? I wouldn't be able to say. "Hey Faofa, I think I found something." Avy called out to me, lifting a large chest onto the desk where she was standing, before examining it. Looking over at her and then back at the scroll, I sunk the scroll into the shadows, intending to… keep my hands on it, so to say.
Then, I moved over to Avy with a swift movement, right as she opened the chest. Inside, were a few trinkets — two old looking goblets, an old, sheathed dagger and a diadem. "Seems as though we've found our artifacts." Avy smiled. I nodded, before taking them out of the chest and also sinking them into the shadows. "This way we don't have to worry about carrying capacity. If anyone asks, it's a storage spell... Or something."
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, I won't reveal your secrets to anyone." Avy laughed, closing the chest and sliding it off of the desk, the chest hitting the ground with a rather nasty sounding thud.
"Alright, let's head back and find another path."
"Sure." I replied, following after Avy, who left the room first.
Before I left, I threw one last gaze at the room and the scrolls inside it, still slightly thinking about the golden cast scroll I had found. Shaking my head, I left the room as well, closing the door after myself. "I'll see what's inside when we're back at the inn."
I commented in my mind, before quickly catching up to Avy, who had already treaded quite the distance away from me.
Time remaining: Two hours, thirty five minutes…
We managed to find a different path, following it into a completely different part of the dungeon. Along the way, we encountered more and more monsters, however with our teamwork, they were all easy pickings — with Avy easily tearing through them all. Eventually, we reached a large hallway, at the end of which was a pair of rather large and intimidating looking gates. "We must have wandered a bit too deep. Those look like the gates to the boss room."
Avy sighed, turning around. "Let's backtrack and find a different path." I nodded, following after her. As we turned around, another small group of adventurers came towards us – made up of three people.
A female who was dressed in a thick green cloak, with a hood over head that hid her white hair. She had bright green eyes, and in her right hand, she carried a staff. Most likely a mage of sorts.
Next to her, was a male dressed in light, leather armour, with metal shoulder pads and a scarf that hid his mouth and nose. He had dark hair and a pair of silverish eyes, with a pair of daggers sheathed on his hips. Maybe a sort of thief or something..?
Lastly, was a man dressed in metal armour, who moved in front of the other two – a large greatsword on his back. His armour was a deep grey colour, while his hair heavily contrasted it with its white colour. His eyes were pitch black and I could spot a small scar on his lip. He was most certainly a warrior of sorts.
The group noticed us, with the man on the front smiling.
"Hello there! Something the matter? Why are you two just standing around?" He asked, as the trio approached us. Avy narrowed her eyes on the trio, before crossing her arms and exhaling. "We assume that those large gates lead to the boss of the dungeon, so we're planning to backtrack."
"Ah… Well that sucks. That was a really long hallway as well…" He sighed, before resting his arms on his hips. Then, he looked at us both again. "Maybe we could verify whether those gates actually lead to the boss room? I really don't want to backtrack."
Avy shook her head. "I don't think it's a good idea…"
The trio didn't let her finish, as the warrior pushed us both gently aside, walking into the large hallway. "Come on, a small peak doesn't hurt. If it is the boss room, we'll simply turn back." The other two party members looked unsure, however followed after their leader.
I exchanged a gaze with Avy.
I could tell she wasn't impressed and even was slightly annoyed by the attitude of the warrior, however, we couldn't exactly let fellow adventurers walk to their own demise. "Hold on, it's really not a good idea—" I called out to them, with me and Avy moving after the two.
"It's a small peak, it can't be that big of a—"
Click.
The trio stopped. The warrior looked down — having stepped on a small pressure plate. "...Shit." Avy sighed, facepalming, while the entire hall began to shake. Then, the entrance to it suddenly shut.
"T-The door closed?!"
"That shouldn't happen…" The thief commented, before him and the mage woman backed up from the warrior, who was looking all around. I was also on high guard – he must have triggered some sort of trap or something. "Prepare for battle!" The warrior shouted, unsheathing his greatsword, with the other two party members also preparing.
Avy unleashed her talons, slowly moving her gaze around.
Then, I felt something.
'Overworld Detection' went off. A warning. My eyes widened, before I quickly flipped around and used the shadows to quickly knock everyone away. "Watch out—!" The ground suddenly opened, revealing a sheer drop into the darkness.
While I managed to push the others off of the platform that had opened, I myself didn't manage to leap off in time, and so fell down into the depths. Avy quickly rushed to the edge. "Riyo—!" She shouted, about to jump after him, however the thief quickly grabbed hold of her. "Don't do something stupid!"
The ground then closed back up, a magic circle shining over it – as if a seal was restored on it.
"What the…?" The warrior let out, before suddenly monsters began to wander out of the darkness. Quickly, he jumped back up to his feet, lifting his greatsword up into the air and with one swing, slicing apart a group of monsters approaching him.
"Quickly–! Defend yourselves first! We'll find a way to save that guy afterwards!"
Avy broke free of the thief's control, her expression a worried mess. As the other three adventurers began to fend off the monsters, Avy grit her teeth and hit the ground. "All because these fools didn't simply listen and go back… Faofa… Please, stay alive." Avy stood back up, before with one swift movement, slicing her way through the monsters in the room, slight tears in her eyes.
"I'll come after you, I promise..!"
In the corner of the hallway, the rogue hired by Gidou to keep track of Faofa shed a cold sweat. "A trap…? But those should have been disarmed by the guild… Shit." The rogue exhaled. "I should report this back to the Guildmaster, but… I can't leave these adventurers here. The door is closed – which means that anything can happen now. I have to stay here and make sure nothing happens here that will bring harm to these adventurers." The rogue narrowed their eyes.
"Stay safe Riyo. We'll come get you."
As I fell down into the abyss, I shed a sweat, looking over my shoulder at the seemingly bottomless drop. "Arvalor–!" I called out, the shadow beast leaping out from the shadows on my body, before quickly catching me onto its back. I tightly gripped onto it, the beast leaping onto the closest wall and sliding down it, before leaping across onto the wall, continuing the slide.
We continued to control our descent like this, until eventually we reached the ground, where Arvalor landed with a heavy stomp. I took in a few deep breaths, before looking up at where we had just come from.
"Who could have predicted a fall like that…" I sighed.
Hopping off of Arvalor, I gently brushed him, before looking around. It was dark at first, however then torches ignited, illuminating a hallway which led down into what seemed to be a more rocky, cave-like tunnel.
"This must be an unexplored section of the dungeon… I should be careful." I commented before slowly moving after the torches. While usually, this would probably be a bad idea, it wasn't as if I had any other choice.
Going back up was out of the question, since even if I used Arvalor to scale up, the ground closed back up after I fell down, and seemingly 'sealed' itself with a magic circle or something. So if I wanted to find a way out, the only choice was exploring… wherever I have found myself now.
And these torches…
While ominous, they were my only guidance right now. Besides, looking around… It didn't seem like there was anywhere else to go anyways.
Taking in a deep breath, I slowly followed the torches, which continued to ignite forward, illuminating the tunnel more and more, as it led down deeper underground. Arvalor stuck closely to my side, while I simply formed the venom spear in my other hand. "Avy, stay safe alright? I'll find my way back to you."
I commented, descending down the tunnel.
…
Deep, deep in the dungeon's depths, within a ruined hallway of what was once a throne room, a figure on the throne sat, a pair of shining red eyes piercing through the shadow that was cast over it. It slightly lowered its head, narrowing its eyes a bit, before resting its head onto its left arm, which it rested onto the thrones armrest.
"Yes… Come to me. Allow yourself to face the trial."
A small skeletal crow flew through the room, shrieking as it landed on the figure's other arm, which it raised up, the crow turning to look at it, tilting its head to the side.
"I wish to see… Whether you really are… our Hope."