"What are you here for? Dungeons are closed off at the moment until the Enforcers sweep em." Said the guild's blacksmith.
He was a bronze-skinned old man, his body was broad and built, kind of resembling a square. He had dark purple eyes, and his white beard was unkept and messy, yet it was obvious that he was someone who could be called handsome when he was younger.
Blake replied with an innocent smile. "Of course Roy, I know the dungeons aren't to be explored right now. I'm going monster hunting on the surface."
Lying through his teeth, Blake held his innocent smile patiently as the old stubby man openly glared at him. Blake didn't take offense to this however, most blacksmiths were usually like this, they were blunter with their words and often had a short temper.
Maybe it was because of all the hammering they did. Perhaps their tempers shortened after being exposed to so much heat when burning iron? Blake didn't know, but he didn't care either.
The faces of the other two boys that were accompanying him were white with anxiety, if they were found out to be disregarding the Vice-guild master's order they be punished, or worse kicked out from the guild.
"Look boy, I don't give a damn where your going- hell, I don't even care you get lost and die in some ditch down in 'The lands below', however, what I do care about is the equipment I make. I don't want my hard work falling into the hands of some dungeon bandits." Roy retorted bluntly.
It was normal to find dungeon bandits anywhere a dungeon or labyrinth was close by, but Veenvale specifically was by far home to most of them.
"As I said, I'm only monster hunting on the surface. I'm sure we will find monsters worthwhile around here somewhere." Blake said. His fake smile was still plastered on his face.
The blacksmith, Roy, simply snorted and grabbed the weapons that were assigned to Blake his followers. Blake didn't have a weapon of his own yet since he was still technically considered a rookie/recruit, no matter his astounding talent, the guild rules were the guild rules. Grabbing their weapons they all walked out of the armory.
Soon one of the boys broke the silence. "So...we aren't going to the dungeon?"
"Of course we are you idiot, I was obviously lying. Why would I hunt on the surface when most of the monsters up here don't even have a core? And even the ones that do have cores, they're either way too strong or just too far from Veenvale." Blake replied.
"Then how would we get in? Isn't there a guild manager that is in charge of who enters and exits the dungeon?" the other boy asked.
"Don't worry about that, I'll handle that when we get to the dungeon checkpoint."
...
After riding horseback, the three approached the checkpoint. The checkpoint was a guard station that watched over the dungeon entrance, there would usually be two guards and a guild manager that manned the station.
Their main duty was to observe the dungeon entrance, making sure no monsters reached the surface, however, they were also in charge of who entered and exited the dungeon.
Blake hopped off and hitched his horse. He walked closer and soon the guild manager approached him.
"Oh, Blake is that you?"
"Yeah, how has your shift been going watching over the dungeon? Anything exciting?" Blake asked.
"Haha... I wish, it's honestly terribly boring here. Anyway, why are you guys here, you do know I can't let you in right now right?"
Blake smiled slightly then put his hand on the Manager's shoulder. "C'mon man, the Enforcers won't be here for like another two days. I'm so close to reaching Magic swordsman Rank 2. I'll even hook you up with some monster cores I pick up in the dungeon, you know I'm good for it."
The manager cuffed his chin as if he was thinking hard about the situation then he looked at Blake and his innocent smile. "Sigh. fine, okay. But you have to be quick if the guild master finds out about this he'll have my head on a stick by the end of the day."
Blake giggled a bit and then replied. "Of course, I'll be in and out. Also, I won't forget the cores I promised you."
The manager smiled upon hearing this, cores were considered higher in value than gold or silver due to the effort it took to obtain one. Most monsters that had cores were decently strong monsters to a certain extent. The manager then looked behind Blake.
"Is it just you three? Are you sure you guys will be safe with a party of three? You guys are still rookies at the end of the day."
Blake cringed hard hearing those words come out from out of the manager's mouth. Why would he put someone like himself in the category of a lowly rookie?
He was only a rookie in name, his talent far exceeded the newbies the manager was referring to. However, Blake held his smile to not offend the person who was allowing him entry into the dungeon.
"Yeah, it's just us, don't worry we'll only be inside until I reach Rank 2. Besides, I'm sure we could handle ourselves fine, we've already been in the dungeon many times already." his smile still hanging on his face.
Shortly after the manager raised his hand to the guards and the three passed the checkpoint. The labyrinth entrance was large, even from miles away it was still visible.
The large blocky entrance was a sight to see every time Blake saw it, it never got old. It was located around the forests of Veenvale, and you could even spot the mountains right behind it.
The three got off their horses then Blake turned around. "Do you two both have your Ascent Cure? I don't want to have to deal with any of you throwing up on the way back to the surface."
Ascent Cures were always necessary when delving into dungeons. This was because of the weird effects the dungeon did on the body when traversing back up and out of the dungeon. The further in the dungeon you were, the stronger the effects were on your body.
They were heading into the first stratum which caused the body to feel light dizziness and nausea. It wasn't life-threatening but it was still annoying to have to deal with those symptoms so rookies always carried Ascent Cures with them.
The other two boys nodded, confirming that they had their cures which made Blake smile in satisfaction.
"Good. Then let's enter, we can't stay in the dungeon for long, or else we'll be found out."
They entered the dungeon, walking down spiraling steps of stairs before they finally entered the green and lushes forest expanse. The trees were extremely tall, much taller than the ones on the surface. Not to mention the mana felt a bit more apparent down here.
Blake equipped his sword and shield, as a magic swordsman he wouldn't need any physical weapons once he reached a certain rank. At that point, he would be able to wield mana as his sword and shield, but he wasn't on that level yet so he carried equipment.
The other two boys also equipped their gear, with one taking out a bow and the other an axe.
…
"Hiyah!"
Blake swung his sword, his form was good and his stance was firm. He sliced the head off of the centipede's legs, it struggled to move without its sharp legs, suddenly the boy with the axe jumped landing on its carapace to hold it in place.
"Watch out!" The boy with the bow blurted. There was another, much smaller centipede about to attack Blake unnoticed, the boy quickly aimed his bow and shot an arrow piercing directly through its head.
Blake nodded, thanking the boy with the arrow then he walked up and stabbed the centipede that had its legs cut off, killing it in one blow.
He wiped his forehead. "Phew! Alright, y'all check those two monsters for cores let me check the Apparatus to see how many times I've leveled since we've been in here. I can't be too far until I reach the max level for magic swordsman rank 2."
The two boys nodded and began dismantling the carapace of the centipedes just as they were taught in training. They easily cut the corpse open like they had done many times before.
The three boys had been in the labyrinth for over 2 and a half hours now and had collected a total of 5 cores. Though it was only a little, this was a considerable amount for the first stratum, most monsters here were mostly just 'oversized mutated regular animals'.
The monsters on this stratum were the closest things to what animals on the surface looked like, and they rarely had any cores so the amount that the trio had found so far was actually really good.
The boy with the bow sighed lifting his head and looking at Blake. "No luck here, this one doesn't have a core."
Hearing this Blake sighed lightly, it was irritating that they could only find so little of cores, however, even if they didn't find any they still earned exp for killing each monster so it wasn't a complete waste. Blake then looked over at the other boy and asked. "What about you, any core inside that one?"
The boy kept digging into the insides of the monster until his eyes widened and he looked up in excitement.
"This one has a core-"
Before he could even finish his sentence he was grabbed and dragged into the bushes by his head. Blake couldn't even see what had grabbed him, it was like an invisible force just dragged him away. He quickly got up onto his feet and called to the other boy.
"Hey get up! Something is wrong, I don't know what just grabbed him but it has some kind of stealth skill."
The boy got up equipping his bow once more.
"Arghhhhh!!!!" The voice of the other boy was loud as it echoed throughout the forest.
Blake and the other boy rushed toward the screams, preparing for a fight, however, the screams quickly faded into silence, and when they found their other subordinate the only thing that was left was a gory sight of the bottom half of his corpse. Blood poured out of what was left of the body, spewing into the dirt.
Blake's heart dropped to his feet, and a blast of fear hit him all at once, obliterating everything else from his mind.
Hiss!
A hissing sound came from behind them and he turned around swinging his sword and releasing sword strikes. His sword strikes materialized into blue mana sword strikes that cut into the bushes the hiss came from, yet, no monster cry was heard.
This monster was obviously very fast. Suddenly the bushes next to them rustled and they both got in a defensive stance.
The boy with the bow aimed straight toward the sound waiting on the monster to show itself, however, with his inexperience in actual combat his finger slipped and the arrow shot before the monster even appeared.
As if it was waiting at this exact moment the monster zoomed out, this time with its appearance visible. It jumped directly on the boy with the bow and drew its claw all over the boy's body.
"Ahh! Aghh, b-Blake..healp meh" the sound of his words was getting mushed and becoming inaudible from all the blood that had begun clogging his throat.
Blake watched in horror as his subordinate was clawed to death by the huge monster. It was a light green, giant lizard. It's body radiated a vicious and wild energy, like it couldn't be contained or locked up, it had six legs with sharp long claws. He had never even seen such a lizard in the Bestiary, it was way too big for it to even be a monster of the 1st stratum.
Suddenly the giant lizard looked up at him, his subordinate had already grown limp from all the attacks from the monster. The vertical-slit reptile pupils narrowed as the lizard stared at him.
There was intelligence in those eyes and an unshakable coldness. Blake's mind went through all sorts of scenarios of how to get out of this predicament, he had to survive.
He looked down at his waist where the pouch of monster cores was. He remembered that monsters loved cores, he swiftly grabbed his pouch and tossed all the cores out at the lizard hoping it would go after the cores and not him. The lizard's eyes immediately locked onto the sparkling cores that flew in the air, it worked, this was his chance!
Blake immediately turned around running for his life, he was determined to make it out of this dungeon alive. Yet, he didn't even get to take his tenth step when he felt a sharp pain on the left side of his torso.
He looked down, instinctively grabbing at the spot that was in pain. A hole was there with blood leaking out of it rapidly. He turned back to look at the lizard, his face full of shock.
"A lizard….that can use….magic?"
Those were the last words he said before his consciousness slipped into the abyss and the world darkened in his eyes.