The dungeon, as far as Reed was aware, had five levels, with increasing difficulty as one passed through them.
Levels 1 and 2 were tier 2 levels. 3 and 4 were tier 3 levels, and level 5 was tier 4.
The dungeons had a so-called dungeon core.
It was what the dungeon used to keep itself running, spawning creatures, setting traps, etc.
A dungeon core could be destroyed by someone who was clearing it, and if it was, the one who destroyed it gained ownership of the dungeon.
Granted, it was not total control over it, that still belonged to the system.
But gaining ownership over a dungeon allowed you to gain power for every challenger killed within it, as well as allowing you some control over what a successful challenger may gain.
However, most of the dungeons are still unowned.
This is mainly due to three reasons. The first is that the core is usually hidden on the last level, and ownership can only be gained be someone of the same or lower tier as the dungeon.
This dungeon was only tier 4, and not near any major city, so most people who could have gained ownership, simply didn't care enough about it.
So for a player like Reed, this was a great opportunity.
Reed arrived at the dungeon and quickly breezed through the first two floors and entered the third.
The third floor was a forest, and there was no sun or cloud above, but it still appeared to be morning.
Reed had his pistols out as he maintained a quick pace on the open path.
His eyes scanned his surroundings.
'Come out quickly, I don't have time to waste.'
After a few conversations with Ms. Bur, Reed had learned about the creatures and environment of each level.
And with the information in hand, he was confident to walk away from even the last level with little to no injuries if he used his guns, which is what he was doing at the moment.
Suddenly Reed paused his steps, a moment later he raised his left arm, aimed into the trees and fired.
The bullet tore through a chunk of a tree before hitting it's target, which let out a loud whimper.
And suddenly, multiple brown and grey blurs charged towards him, as he aimed both pistols and quickly started firing.
It took him three seconds to shoot all of them.
But two of the five were still alive, just having huge holes in their abdomens.
Reed decided to put the wolves out of their misery, and fired again, making their brain matter fly all over the place.
He did not collect the mana cores, but just hurried on his way.
'That's the first wave, the second should contain 8 of them.'
The second wave did contain 8 of them, and unlike the first one this time they came from only one side, which only made Reed's work easier.
'Alright, boss time.'
The boss was a 1.6 metre tall wolf, but it's size did not help it as much as it made it a bigger target.
Reed did take the mana core from the boss, as it was much more valuable, and entered the fourth level.
The fourth and fifth level were not the same as the other three, they were what were known as 'False levels'.
Because they were technically the same level, expect that there was a staircase that led to the fifth level instead of an arch, and no creature from the fifth level could climb it.
But any challenger could freely move through the levels, so the the fourth and fifth levels were, in fact, one level.
This made the core even harder to locate, since it was only one level, the area where it could be hidden increased by a great amount.
The fourth level was also a forest, but instead of travelling forwards, he walked to the direct right of the entrance.
He only needed to walk for half a minute before what he was procuring appeared in front of him.
Floating above an ornate black pedestal with golden lines running through it, was the dungeon core.
This dungeon core was an orange cube with a side of half a metre.
Reed looked at it but did not advance towards, instead, he turned around and walked back to the path.
The second reason: The core is immune to damage as long as there is any dungeon created creature still alive within it.
So to even be able to damage the core, you need to wipe out all creatures created by the dungeon.
By what he heard from the players, they had realized that they were going to run out of ammunition, and decided to push using all of it to see if they could clear the dungeon.
They had failed miserably, and discovered the core while running from the boss of the fourth level.
'They didn't even know what it was, but still could figure out that it was valuable.'
'They might go ask about it at the guild, and someone might hear, and that someone may spill the beans, resulting in a mad dash, of tier 4 adventurers to this place.'
'They might already be on their way!'
Thinking so, Reed started to jog.
The enemies of the fourth level were orcs.
[Orc] [Level 10]
Wielding clubs, they were powerful, but slow, so Reed dealt with them swiftly and advanced to the boss.
The boss of the fourth level was a stone golem
[Stone Golem] [Level 10]
Despite being the same level as the slime and the orcs, the golem was much stronger, and almost ten times as durable.
However, all golems had a weak point, their energy supply, which was also their mana core.
The easiest way to take down a golem was to destroy the core, but that meant that you couldn't get it's mana core.
This fact made golems a nuisance for adventurers.
But Reed was in a hurry, so he killed it.
The stairway to the next level was surrounded by rocks, as if was dug into the side of a mountain, then someone picked it up and put it in the middle of the forest.
You couldn't see the end of the passage, but Reed did not hesitate.