The evil king received such news with joy, someone capable of successfully conquering one of those dungeons would certainly be a worthy opponent, it would probably be easily defeated, the evil king had already lost track of his own power and he was couple of that for some time.
A few names were beginning to emerge on the reports the evil king received, but the name Krasnitaff was the one that most caught his attention, so he sent spies to watch him closely and get as much information as possible about this half-elf and half-dragon.
Krasnitaff is the son of Rastinaff, an ancestral dragon, not one of the beasts created by the evil king, a dragon that like many of the inhabitants of that world had to take refuge at the oversky, even Rastinaff was not able to easily stay alive in that desolated world.
But something good happened to him, he met Isadrix and took her as his wife, after some time Rastinaff was born, his birth was too much for his mother, who had to give her life, so that he could be born.
Strangely he did not have the ability to transform into a dragon, only a few scales appeared on his hands and feet, his ears were as pointed as his mother's, inside his eye a small eternal flame seemed to glow, not of fire like his father, but of light.
Krastinaff never knew the world his parents came from, but he learned almost everything about the "world" he live in, how to travel from one place to another, he could eaily walk inside those dungeons like few others.
It was not necessary to penetrate deep into the dungeons oversky to know their stories, they were almost all recorded in the entrances of the dungeons, where most of their permanent occupants also live and, further in*, dungeons have a small world enclosed in those walls.
This was a feature that did not exist in dungeons on earth, sky or ocean. There, the most common was to form a village near a dungeon or on the way, but there wouldn't be so many inside, there wasn't room for them, but at oversky there was space more than enough.
Krastinaff never intended to explore the dungeons, for him to enter the dungeons was like walking in a forest or other natural place, except that there was almost nothing natural in those dungeons.
Krastinff lived exploring the interior of dungeons in search of useful things, but he never bothered to become an explorer, exploring was just his job, as he explored them he made friends and before he got it, there was a group following him wherever he were going to.
He liked it, they were not just workmates, they had become his family, but that environment had not ceased to be problematic and dangerous, every once in a while one of his companions died.
When he was alone he didn't worry about the dangers, now accompanied by his family he started to feel fear and understand why people didn't like oversky, he will also notice that those weird figures were always watching him, monitoring him, one day when they were too close after two losses on one of his raids, he stopped them.
"Who are you and why da hell are you coming after me?" he wasn't used to be aggressive, but his half-dragon blood always accompanied him in moments of emotional tension.
"We are heralds of your majesty, you should know it, chosen one" replied the goblin all prim, he did not stop before the face of anger and confusion of Krastinaff. "Feel honored to be an object of interest to the evil king" goblin looked doubtful and contemptuous at Krastinaff.
"I don't fucking know what you guys are talking about, but you better get out of my way while you can." Krastinaff huffs as she utters this and the sparkle in his eyes intensifies.
"Fool, you will not be the one who will pay if you try to defy the heralds of your majesty" Krastinaff got slapped without force on his back, it was a bald dwarf who was part of the heralds' entourage. "Your friends will pay, if you want to get rid of us fulfill the prophecy and go face your highness, the king of evil" the helpers who accompaning the entourage took all the notes of everything that was said, which annoyed Krastinaff more, Krastinaff draw his short sword from his waist quickly and roared.
"It's my last warning, disappear or die" Some of the people in the tavern got scared, even those who knew Krastinaff, the heralds deposited some coins on the table and motioned for the waitress to go get it, bumped into Kritinaff as they left and the Goblin whispered in his ear.
"Don't think this is because of your threat, as proof of our warning, if you look at any of your friends before we leave, the first one you see dies"
Kritinaff felt a chill down her spine, that whisper was not empty or ordinary, Krastinaff could see magic being used as if there was steam in the air a gift inherited from his father, that Goblim had conjured something, and if they were who they said they could have a spell as in some dungeon traps, he didn't want to lose another friend and watched the heralds carefully withdraw.
Worse than the threat and confusion was to return to his internal conflict, the heated discussion between her friends may have been suspended by her advance against the heralds, but it wasn't over, Krastinaff looked at her 4 good friends and returned to the table with regret, you cannot take out your frustration on strangers.
"What's gotten into you man" asked Amira, she would rather start a new discussion than continue the one that was going on before, even though she knew it wouldn't help at all.
"Leave him be, it's good to punch some strangers once in a while for fun" Ramon countered, he even smiled, even though he knew he shouldn't, he just wanted to help calm the group's tempers.
"As I was already saying, we better stop this nonsense and go straight to the next job, staying here chatting will not improve our lives at all" Susano finishes saying and loosens the hood cord leaving a little more his face on sight.
"That's right Susano, very good, you already forgot your friends, great company you huh?" Amira spews sarcasm in Susano's face before another gulp of Cantrill vodka.
"Shut up…" Susano holds back.
"… Bitch? Do you think that because you paid me for a few nights of sex you own me? Amira raises her voice and pushes the table.
"If it weren't for me you wouldn't even be in this group" Susano pokes the table with her index finger.
"Oh! I'm sorry my master… and if it weren't for me you'd be a virgin to this day." Amira doesn't hold back on rudeness as usual.
"Shut up all of you!" Rikka vents, she can't stand these recurring fights between Amira and Susano, even more so soon after they lost Tamira and Balkhor.
They are silent for a moment, Rikka is still very nervous about having lost Tamira, her companion for many years already, and Balkhor a distant cousin she just met by chance.
Rikka has been the group's guiding stone for a long time, and they want it to stay that way. Krastinaff spent so long living on her own instincts, today he feels comfortable relying on his friends to lead an easier life, but at times like this she wonders if she wouldn't be better alone again.
They get back to drink in silence, and when they can no longer, they go back to their rooms stumbling over their own legs, the regret in their conscience has not gone away for getting drunk, it has only been suspended for the next discussion.
When the new cycle starts, Krastinaff sees Ramon crawling into the tavern's hall, he knows why, anyway he's going to step on his friend's toes anyway, before he can say anything he hears Ramon's grumbling.
"Noisy crap idiots" isn't the first time he's uttered these grumblings and it won't be the last, Krastinaff flashes a sadistic smile at his friend.
"Another good night's sleep? Krastinaff holds back a laugh, drinking his beer to swallow a piece of lamb he's been chewing.
"Fuck you asshole again, those shitheads again, they fight and then fuck the night banging the bed against my bedroom wall, let them use a battering ram at once and break the damn wall" Ramon punches the table, Krastinaff almost chokes and the tavern keeper catches Ramon's attention.
"And they yelled a lot and again?" Krastinaff continues teasing his friend.
"Swap room with me and you'll find out" responds Ramon, trying again without success.
"I can't, you know right?! We have to respect the dice's wisdom!" Krastinaff pushes away his empty plate and finishes his beer.
"Fucking endless luck of you, you never take it off to be near them" Ramon has been suspicious of Krastinaff's dices, but he hasn't found a way to prove that they're being manipulated in some way, Ramon already tried everything he knew, to detect magic, investigations or even crossing himself to take his bad luck away.
"I have one more good news, we voted, and you're in charge of convincing Rikka to accept the new assignment." Krastinaff gets up, giving his friend little time to complain.
"Like this??? Are you so crazy? After I dragged Rikka out of that trap…" Ramon is very uncomfortable, he shakes his head, but with a heavy heart.
"That's why the vote was unanimous, you have a lot to talk to her" Krastinaff leaves the table and leaves some coins to waitress, she approaches to collect them and take Ramon's order who ignores her, he turns his face to accompany Krastinaff's departure and complain some more.
"Gimma break dude?" Ramon opens his arms in vain, Krastinaff waves her hand goodbye to Ramon as he leaves.
The waitress is already leaving with Krastinaff's plate and payment, but she is interrupted by Ramon's deep, heavy voice, the problem isn't with the waitress, but she feels like it was 'cause Ramon's intonation.
"Hey, young lady bring me a pot of Shitake coffee, today will be another shit" Ramon exasperates at breakfast, he'll have to wash a lot of dirty loundry out with Rikka, at the worst possible moment.
In the street, outside the tavern Krastinaff walks casually walk around, they've been in that colony for some time, but he still haven't had an opportunity to read the inscriptions on the wall of that colony.
He can barely read even knowing many different languages and dialects, this must be a very old language, and coincidentally speaks about the prophecy that such heralds mentioned the day before, because of that he reads it with more attention than usual.
The entries don't seem to make much sense, they promise such a hero, whatever that is, and that he'll conquer a dungeon with the help of just 4 friends, it's not an exact number, Krastinaff laughs and thinks how the people were brainless.
He goes back to the tavern chuckling and thinking about the nonsense of those inscriptions, he noticed that they weren't part of the original construction either, they're very old but not enough, maybe they were made by a drunk bard a long time ago trying to record a legend that he must have invented to earn some coins for himself.
Krisinaff laughs at his fate, he is being watched from not far away by heralds, and the evil king will also laugh at his fate when he hears this report. But their fate is sealed from this moment on.
Krastinaff goes back to the tavern and finds all her companions to discuss the next mission, another heated discussion for sure, but it's better than yesterday's discussion.
The next day they take transport to their last mission as mercenaries in the sacrificial dungeon, which is not far from there.