Wasn't this coincidence a bit much? What made Victor Gremory, a novice mage, be this far from his post and registered party? Something was most certainly off. Whatever the cause, it was unlikely to be connected to Riva, since only Rao knew about her goals and even if he could have pulled some strings, he could have hardly predicted the opening of a new dungeon.
In any case, she could just play along and test the waters for now. There'd eventually be an opportunity to act.
The lead adventurer introduced her to the rest of the group that waited in front of the gate, they were a normal adventurer group of 7 people, averaging around low rank. It turned out that they didn't have their own mage and thus hired Victor as a temporary member.
Even though he was a novice rank, he was a good choice because of his great mana sense and versatility in supporting the party with his spells, he was also the one who had been analyzing the dungeon from the outside and partially determined its properties.
"Then who were the guys guarding the entrance, if they're not with your party?" Riva wondered aloud. "You also gave me the impression that something went wrong with the dungeon."
"They're from a different team that arrived before us. They followed procedure and divided the team into guards and delvers, those that entered the dungeon were only meant to take a quick peek and return immediately, but we haven't heard back from them in hours. We can only presume that something went wrong." The leader explained.
Surmising the situation, Riva learned that the team had arrived only after the first team had started their operations. They had Victor analyze the dungeon and found it to be very weak but possibly poisonous, a dungeon that should have been manageable with their team. But the fact that the other team never returned was worrying and they had been discussing if they should be getting back up instead f taking the risk and entering by themselves.
They were stronger and had more people than the first team. They even had a counter for the poison, which was likely to be the cause for the other team's failure. Victor was a support mage capable of casting a domain barrier that could counter mild environmental hazards.
Calling backup would mean that they needed to share the rewards for the dungeon with even more people. A new dungeon was a rare chance they were unwilling to miss.
In the end, they still decided to attempt a delve together with Riva.
Riva also didn't forget to ask her system to analyze Victor. Since she no longer needed to talk aloud and disguise her kill activation, she reset the activation command back to default.
[
Name: None
Race: Human
Strength: Weaker than User
State of Mind: Tense
]
He had no name? This made it even more certain that something wasn't quite right but it was a relief that he was both human and weaker than Riva. She smiled at her previous idea that he might be a hidden master.
Victor had noticed her scrutinizing gaze "Nice to meet you, Mr. Oliver I heard about you from my colleagues in Marinon, you've got a great reputation with the guys over there. I feel much safer having you along."
It wasn't hard to tell that these weren't his true thoughts and Riva detected both hidden annoyance and concern in his mannerisms. Despite that, she replied with a warm smile. "The pleasure is mine."
"I sure hope we make it in time to save the other team, it might be unlikely but one should never lose hope. We need to treasure each life, especially with our dangerous work." Riva wore a solemn expression. She said this to deepen her image of a kind and dutiful adventurer.
Everyone was especially wary of her. Meeting a lone adventurer was rare, and she was relatively strong. There was a possibility that she would backstab the others for the gains or that she had a party waiting in ambush for when they returned from the dungeon, to take advantage of their weakness and steal their gains. In any case, she couldn't be trusted.
"Okay enough chitchat, any more questions?" The leader hollered. "No?! Then get into formation and go!"
Riva found her place among the adventurers. She would guard the rear together with a tank, who was obviously assigned to her side to keep an eye on her.
The formation was designed with Victor at the center, both for optimum support coverage and to protect him because he was the main key to their survival.
The group braced themselves and stepped through the wooden door frame. Because of its size being that of a regular door, they could only enter two at a time.
Riva watched the leader escort Victor through the gate. They seemed to be familiar with each other and it would probably be tough to find an instance where Victor was alone, if necessary she would just have to create the scenario herself.
Finally, it was her turn to step through the gate.
The feeling of being transported into a sub-dimension was a little disorienting, especially when one wasn't used to it.
Riva had seen two dungeons since she revived. The scorpion dungeon was dark and claustrophobic with its countless earthen tunnels while the golem dungeon made visitors feel like ants among its white marble majesty. This new dungeon once again subverted all expectations and proved once more how mysterious and enigmatic the entities known as dungeons truly were.
What greeted the party wasn't halls, rooms, or tunnels but wide plains.
Rolling hills covered with carpets of colorful flowers stretched as far as the eye could see beneath the brilliant blue sky. Their thick scent hung in the warm summer air.
"This is the perfect spot for a picnic!" An adventurer remarked.
"So beautiful, I just wanna lay down and take a nap." Another one suggested.
"Fools, get it together! Vincent, do your thing!" The leader shouted.
Riva only smiled. She had gotten a system notification.
[User is subjected to poisonous environment]
She knew she didn't have to worry because of her 'Poison Nullification' skill, not that she was likely to be affected in the first place. The other adventurers weren't as lucky. The two that entered at the forefront hand already dropped to the ground, they snoring away, wearing happy smiles in their dreams.
Despite looking a little tired, Victor executed the order and chanted until a transparent bubble emerged and expanded enough to completely surround their group.
The air within was clean without a hint of poison, despite the barrier also encapsulating the flower-filled ground. This was the power of a domain spell, it put the area under the rule of the domain's properties, which were in this case, to be non-harmful to humans. Everything within the domain had to abide by this rule. It even decreased the damage received.
Riva analyzed the spell using 'Advanced Identification' thus adding it to the system shop. Comprehension was the key for unlocking new stuff and using 'Identification' was an easy means to increase it. She didn't really have a use for the human domain barrier and no desire to learn it when there were skills like 'Ice Magic Proficiency', but gotta catch them all!
It didn't take long for everyone to recover from the poison's effects, even those that had fallen asleep awoke after a short while and some 'gentle' slapping and kicking.
"Do you sink se osers died from se poison?" A swollen cheeked adventurer asked.
"It's not that simple." An adventurer that was inspecting the ground replied. " I can see traces of others entering and look over there, there are even some traces of them falling to the ground." He pointed at a patch of flattened flowers.
"But the bodies are missing." The leader concluded.
"Yes, and there are no traces of whatever took them away."