Next day…
Adventurer's Guild, in the morning.
The big entrance door was open to all, the round wooden tables inside were occupied by adventurer's chatting with each other while enjoying their beer, few were submitting missions while some were forming groups in front of mission board to choose a suitable one for them, it was a common scenery inside here.
The figure of a man wearing a long blue hooded jacket and white mask entered the guild, his appearance didn't attract much attention as some choose to hide their appearance when working as adventurers to not attract unwanted attention.
Kale then walked to the mission board and scanned through the missions listed on it.
The mission board Kale chose was meant for easiest missions, he had reached Iron Rank so he could choose missions at one rank higher, meaning Silver Rank at most but he decided to choose one at Iron Rank after some thinking.
His rank had reached Iron but his level was still 10, he could only store a small amount of mana to cast a few spells, fortunately, the Battle Qi was counted differently, as for mutant traits, although he increased the density of his bone frame by a considerable amount making it stronger but that was it.
He discarded all the missions that weren't related to the Poison-type Dungeon, then started sorting out the easy ones, finally Kale's eyes landed on one that met his requirements.
___ ___ ___
Mission:-
Type: Gathering/Hunting
Rank: Iron
Location: The Poison Crypt
Description: Collect the horns of Poison Horned Rabbits.
Time Limit: 3 days
Reward: 10 Silvers per horn.
Note: The reward isn't fixed, it would change depending on the condition of the horns gathered.
___ ___ ___
Kale removed the mission from the board and was about to walk towards the main counter when he felt something tugging on his coat, he turned and saw a young elf girl holding the corner of his coat while looking at him with an expressionless face.
The elf had an oval face, she had long and black hair that were tied behind her head, her skin was smooth and tender, her long eyelashes were complimenting her black eyes, beauty was embedded in her bloodline, unsurprisingly, her figure was similar to Koya, a well-balanced body that was like a blessing for a gymnast.
Kale scanned through his memories but didn't recognize her face. He then noticed her eyes darting towards the mission in his hands
"What do you want?" He said while quickly hiding the mission template behind his back.
The elf girl looked at him but didn't speak.
"Ahem, friend, she is with me," At this time a boy approached them from behind the girl, he continued "I apologize for her actions, we normally take this mission every time it comes out, today we were late so you took it,"
Kale observed the boy.
The boy had a good build body like an athlete, his eyes were pale blue just like his hair, his skin was so fair that it was almost white, his faint smile looked a little forced, cold air was permitting around his body, he didn't look like he was doing it on purpose. On a careful look, Kale noticed sky blue scales growing below his ears, they were mostly hidden under his blue rob.
'A dragonman? It should be a Frost Dragon variant,' Kale thought.
Dragonman is seen as a variant human race, even amongst dragonman there are a lot of categories, for example, the most common was general dragon variant, then the special ones like flame dragon variant or water dragon variant, then come the rare ones like ice dragon variant, there are also those that are superior to even these but those are mostly guarded by their tribes to become next heirs and doesn't have the luxury to wander around towns like this, the advantage is that they get resources, status and power at birth.
"Good to know," Kale said in an emotionless tone then turned around to make his way towards the counter.
"Wait, I have a proposal," The boy hurriedly said.
Kale's lips curled upwards under the mask, not that they could see it. He turned to face the boy "What proposal?"
"You seem new here, am I right? You probably don't have much information about Poison Horned Rabbits so, how about we team up to do this mission," The boy suggested.
Kale stopped, he touched his chin, seemly pondering about the proposal.
In truth, he had already decided to team up with them when he saw the girl looking at his mission template, after all, he didn't even know the location of The Poison Crypt Dungeon, much less its map.
By joining them, it would save him quite some effort and money needed to collect information.
He only acted like this to show that he doesn't care much about joining their team. This way, he would get better treatment, giving those two a feeling that he was confident enough to clear such level of missions alone.
"Don't think that much lad, those two are quite trustworthy," A man said, he was wearing full-body silver armour and had a long spear in his hands, the golden badge on his arm showed his Gold adventurer rank.
He had brown hairs, brown eyes and a few visible dragon scales behind his ears, which showed that he too was a dragonman.
The boy gave him a grateful look then looked back at Kale in anticipation.
'Dragonman are very rare around Imperial City, I didn't see even one in the whole Academy yet, and there are two here, maybe there is a tribe not too far away in the Evander Kingdom,' Kale thought, he didn't think that the tribe was in the Blazing Sun Kingdom, because if it was, then they won't be so lowkey due to their high battle strength.
Kale nodded towards the man then looked back at the boy "What will be the share?"
"How about equal shares?" The boy said immediately, normally he wouldn't say that without evaluating Kale's battle strength and checking his usefulness but right now, the mission template wasn't in his hands.
After a short discussion, Kale took the mission as a team, he then left the guild heading towards the dungeon with the duo.
From the discussion, he soon came to realize that the dungeon wasn't as close as he thought it to be, he had to buy some new things for camping as they weren't planning to finish the mission in one day to earn a greater profit.
On the way, he came to know their names, the boy was Kallus and the girl was Vaella. Kale told his real name, he didn't have the capital to hide it, after all, his physique and white hair told a lot about him even if his face was hidden, moreover, he was pretty sure that they won't really believe him no matter the name he uses to introduce himself.
Kallus was a cold-natured boy, after he gave a forced smile at the time of their meeting, he didn't smile again, it was hard to tell if it was because of his race or his nature, his facial expression was always cold similar to Ice Mage Sarah from the Academy.
He was a martial artist, as an ice dragon variant he chose to become an Ice Elemental Martial Artist and unlike humans, he could wield Ice Dragon Qi.
On the other hand, Vaella was a quiet girl, she attentively listened to everything but didn't talk much, she at most answered all the question asked using as fewer words as possible.
Vaella was an Enchanter Mage also known as Shamans, she can temporarily increase her companion's status while decreasing the enemies' status using spells.
Kale introduced himself as a Martial Mage. Simply introducing as a Mage wasn't a good idea according to him, because he neither had a staff nor a magic robe.
All three of them didn't mention their levels, only their adventurer ranks were put forward.
The trio travelled for half a day in a carriage before arriving at their destination, The Poison Crypt.
The entrance of the dungeon was at the bottom of a tall mountain wall, Kale felt like he was standing in front of the bottom of the cliff.
The entrance of the dungeon was sealed by a metal door so that weak monsters that dungeon have low control on, cannot escape the dungeon on their own account. The metal door was, in fact, an origin tool, it doesn't allow monsters and wild beasts to pass through it.
When they were near the dungeon, Kale had seen a few adventurer groups that had set their temporary tents in the vicinity.
It takes almost half a day just to arrive at the dungeon, in this case, if the adventurers want to go back to the town after completing the mission, they would have to travel at night which is very dangerous in the wilderness because strong predators come out to hunt at night while the adventurers are at a disadvantage.
Due to that, they prefer to camp outside the dungeon instead, as many other adventurers are present in the vicinity, in case something unexpected happens, they can work together to solve the problem.
"Poisoned Horned Rabbits are mostly found on the second floor, the first six floors of the dungeon have been cleared and diversions have been made, so we can take the diversion to avoid the 1st floor Boss and directly head to the second floor," Kallus explained as they walked the front of the dungeon door.
He pushed with his hands and the door slowly opened, an underground corridor illuminated by shining yellow crystals was present in front of them.
Kale entered the dungeon together with two of them.
***
The Poison Crypt, first floor.
On the first floor, the common monster was Spitting Spider.
As the name says, it is the spider, the size of a coconut, that spits acid on anyone who enters their territory.
The acid produced in their body is not very harmful, it can only cause itching when it comes in contact with the skin.
The Spitting Spider was a Tier 1 Common-Grade monster after all.
But, adventurers still choose to avoid it if they can, and if they meet it they try to kill it as soon as possible because one or two spiders isn't a problem but the Spitting Spiders live in large colonies like ants, so if they aren't dealt with in time, then they would have endless reinforcements behind them.
Kallus had the map of the explored region of first two floors, combined with Kale's enhanced Life Sense, they avoided most of these spitting spiders on their way and soon arrived in front of a large red stone door, it was the Boss Room, the trio avoided the touching the door and moved in the wide diversion canal on the right side.
The canal was slanted, it was going to the second underground floor of the dungeon.
In a dungeon, canal's cannot be made between upper floors to lower floors, even if someone tried they would heal on their own and the efforts would be wasted. Only after the Boss of the lower floor is defeated once and the powder of their monster core is scattered in the soil while making the canal, only then it won't self-heal.
Due to this reason, the price of the monster core of the Boss of an unexplored floor is very high when sold to the guild.
***
The Poison Crypt, second floor.
Kale was somewhat stunned when he arrived on the second floor if the first floor was like a mage then the second floor was like an underground forest.
What he saw in front of him was a lush green forest consisting of various kinds of shrubs, short trees and rocky terrains covered in green fungi like plants, there was no open sky but the crystals on the ceiling were shining like stars in the night sky of the full moon, their starlight brightened everything in the surrounding.
As they travelled further, Kale began to realize that this place was way bigger than he imagined.
"Most of the vegetation here is poisoned, only the monster here that have some poison resistance can eat them, so don't try and recklessly touch them," Kallus warned Kale when he saw how he was observing the scenery around him.
Kale slightly nodded, though he completely ignored the warning 'Although the plants here in this world are a little different, the characteristic of poisonous plants like smell and colour are mostly same,'
"Poison Horned Rabbits are variants of Horned Rabbits, just like the latter, they are not easy to catch because of their quick moments and cowardly nature, I know the place where we would likely find a few grazing around… Huh?" Kallus was saying when Kale motioned him to be quiet.
Kale touched the Mulan's earring he was wearing, the sound of faint footsteps echoed in his ears. He suddenly frowned " Hide Fast,"