Dungeons in this world were categorised by their size and danger level. A dungeon went from a 1-star all the way to a 9-star. A 1-star dungeon may sound easy and small, but in reality, even they need experts to clear safely. A 9-star dungeon is the stuff of legends, only ever cleared by generational heroes, with cooperation from other races like elves and orcs. An entire army needed to be organised to even stand a chance at clearing them. And if not cleared within a specified time limit, usually a few years, the dungeon would break and it would be enough to destroy an entire country. The final boss of the novel also resided within a 9-star dungeon.
Dungeons were incredibly rare and mysterious, no one knew who created them and why they existed. But one thing was clear: No matter how difficult, the dungeons were meant to be cleared. They were a sort of 'test' that was designed to be difficult and challenging. But of course, with knowledge from his previous life, Johnathan knew exactly what dungeons were. But that's of no importance at the moment, so he shelved that thought.
Johnathan and the orcs entered the cave's entrance. As soon as they went in, the air suddenly became chilly and heavy. A wave of dread washed over Johnathan as his legs almost gave out. He knew he was way out of his league when he came here, but even still, he didn't expect it to be this intense.
The orcs, however, were unfazed, as though they didn't even notice the change in the atmosphere.
'This much pressure just at the entrance... How terrifying...', Johnathan thought to himself.
"You alright, human?", the orc chief asked.
"... I'm fine.", Johnathan replied.
"Hmm. So, what do you think? what kind of dungeon is this?"
After looking at the ominous and strange murals all over the ceiling and the greenish-blue flames in the ancient torches, Johnathan concluded-
"... 4-star dungeon...", Johnathan replied.
The orc's savage faces filled with a sickening joy at that sentence.
"We are so lucky, chief...", one of them said.
"We indeed are...", the chief replied.
"Get into formation... We'll encounter monsters soon... As the human said, tanks will take it easy, archers will conserve arrows and warriors will do what they do best in this stage...", the chief commanded.
The orcs followed without question. The chief and Johnathan stood in the middle of everyone.
They kept walking with vigilance until the sound of a bat rang out violently, alarming everyone.
"Kehehe, human, do you know what that is?", the orc chief asked.
"That's... most likely the gate keeper... from the sound and the feeling of disgust I'm feeling right now... it's most likely a 'scavenger golem'...", Johnathan reasoned and replied.
"You all heard the human... prepare for combat.", the chief commanded.
While Johnathan was trying to hold his pee in, and standing upright, the 3 orc warriors jumped with joy and rushed in to the golem to tear it apart.
"We'll let them handle this small fry for now...", the chief instructed the tanks and the archer sisters.
'Just who are these orcs... they're way too strong...', Johnathan gulped as he witnessed the gatekeeper boss being taken down one-sidedly with little to no effort by the three, unbuffed warrior orcs.
After the golem was taken down, Johnathan said, "There should be a secret right here somewhere... Give me 5 minutes..."
"... Alright, 3 minutes."
Johnathan nodded. He already knew exactly where to look for it, so after walking up to a mural, he touched it, drew a pattern on it, and suddenly, a small door opened up from within the stone, and inside it a room with a chest in the middle.
"Okay, that's a mimic... We need to kill it before we-", before Johnathan could finish the sentence, one of the orcs threw a stone at the chest with so much force, the mimic died in one hit.
"So the human wasn't lying...", one of the sister archers spoke with surprise.
The orcs all inspected the room in awe and turned to Johnathan.
"A man of your word, huh? Impressive.", the chief commented.
They all agreed that they didn't need any rest yet, so they continued down the dungeon.
The fighting was surprisingly easy up till now, but Johnathan knew that they hadn't yet even scratched the dungeon's monster count and difficulty. The orcs knew this too, courtesy of Johnathan telling them, so they used minimal effort to get rid of the low-level mobs.
The time finally came when they had to fight the boss of the first floor. A 4-star dungeon usually has 4 floors. Some rare ones end at 3 floors, but 4 is the maximum, according to Johnathan's memories of the novel.
The orc chief commanded the orcs to fall into their default positions and told Johnathan to sit this one out on the side.
Johnathan gladly took the order and went to the side to sit down on the ground and relax.
The boss was a combine golem, with powers ranging from earth manipulation to transforming its own body. It was a beast with super high defence, high offence and low speed. Even still, a monster like this could easily devastate a small town.
It was now that he finally saw what kind of warrior the orc chief was when a shining green aura overtook one of the warrior orcs who was injured.
'He's a healer... Makes sense, healers are usually the party leaders... At least from what I remember.', Johnathan thought.
But something was off... they were healing too quickly... according to Johnathan, this type of healing would only be possible with some sort of holy magic. Was the orc chief a priest of some god the orcs worshipped? Johnathan wasn't sure.
'Is this what it feels like to get carried? I quite like this...', Johnathan mused as the orcs unleashed their savagery and violence onto the combine golem, destroying it within a dozen minutes.
After the fight was over, they continued on to the next floor. Things were going smoothly for Johnathan... until they encountered the boss of the second floor...