"Ugh, my butt hurts."

Ava grimaced as the carriage rolled along the bumpy road. Although there was actually suspension in the wagon, it didn't totally negate the rattling and vibration. Luckily, when she activated some of her anima, her muscles were cured of their numbness. For a little while at least.

The group had been on the road for over a day now. After leaving the capital city, nothing eventful happened. It was actually incredibly boring. The only exciting thing that happened was when they passed through a town, and that only lasted an hour. At all other times, they could only see green plains, a few tree patches, and lots of farmland.

They were stuck doing nothing as they sat in the rear wagon, only occasionally socializing before returning to silence. Fortunately, being in each other's presence for so long served to make them all more comfortable with each other. However, there was one thing Dirk had learned during this time.

Garet and Casma, the two recruits, were actually in a relationship. Dirk noticed this at night as the two made out in the darkness and fell asleep in each other's arms. He had only noticed since he had keen senses. Also, since he was kept from engaging in any activity, his energy levels were high. This meant that he went to sleep late and woke up early. Thus, he heard all the lip smacking, and when dusk came, the two separated before everyone else woke up. Unfortunately, Dirk woke up earlier than anyone, and they realized that he now knew their 'secret'.

But Dirk pretended like he hadn't heard or seen anything, much to the appreciation of the two love birds. However, he was surprised and curious. Surprised that they were in a relationship at such an age, and curious about what it felt like.

While Dirk thought about it, he found himself subconsciously glancing at Ava. But when he remembered that they were mad at each other, he glared slightly and turned away. The two hadn't spoken to each other throughout the whole ride, and he wouldn't be the first.

Luckily, this boring wagon ride was almost over. As the sun set on their second day of travel, they finally arrived at the dungeon town. The merchant's caravan stopped in a parking area, prompting the party to hop out and stretch their stiff limbs.

"Agh! Finally! We're here."

"If we earn enough, we can get a better ride next time."

"Thank you for the transport, sir."

As the others cracked their joints, Alec approached the merchant and thanked him. The merchant had already been paid, so their business was done.

The merchant bid them goodbye, and the group left the parking area. As they walked into town with their bags slung over their shoulders, they observed all the passersby. Not unlike the dungeon town they visited during their first dive, there were many people geared up and armed. As a result of their recent combat, both they and the bags of loot they carried released waves of odor. The group could see dark yellow blotches on some people's armor, likely the color of the monster's blood that they killed.

Dirk recognized the town to be similar to a midwestern one. Before coming to this world, he had only seen such style places when he visited old ghost towns on Earth. The buildings were wooden, the roads dirt, and the sun hot. Disregarding the humans walking around the place, dwarves and hybrids had a rather large presence in this town. Most were seen in gear while only some ran shops. Not surprisingly, there were many weapon and armor repair shops, along with some potion shops. The next most popular buildings were inns and restaurants. As a town that catered to the people who dove in the dungeon, this much was expected, and there wasn't much in the way of luxury.

"So, what do we do now?"

Garet asked as they seemed to walk down the street aimlessly. Alec stopped and thought for a second.

"Hm, well, we need to enter the dungeon. But first, we need to get information about it. That'll determine our next steps. I heard the dungeon association has information about that stuff, so let's go there."

Saying that, he turned on his heel and headed for the association building. The building wasn't exactly hidden. It was taller than most and located close to the dungeon entrance. It also had a huge sign plastered across its front that read 'Dungeon Association'.

The group walked inside, a bell ringing to announce their arrival. The place was busy since the day was ending, so Alec waited a bit to talk to a receptionist behind a wooden desk. Since the association specialized in this kind of stuff, and this was a popular dungeon, they obviously had the information they needed. Of course, there was a fee of 10 gold, but it wasn't anything they couldn't pay for. Though, it did cause them to cringe. 10 gold was a lot for just some information.

Alec received a small stack of 3 pages. Each page detailed the dungeon layout, the location of the havens within, the monster types, and the monster power distribution throughout the dungeon. Dirk glanced at all three, and his AI documented them instantly.

The first thing the group noticed was how big the dungeon was. From the entrance to the opposite end where the monster king was, it was about 80 miles. This was many times bigger than the gremlin dungeon, and it immediately forced Alec to rethink his plans.

The second piece of information didn't help either. Alec quickly read about the landscape of the dungeon and found that it was a desert. The first half of the dungeon desert was pure sand. There were mountains of sand dunes everywhere, and the climate matched this unforgiving wasteland. The paper said that the days were filled with blistering heat, and the nights were icy cold. As expected of a desert, but that fact didn't make it any more bearable.

Luckily, the unforgiving landscape only lasted for half of the dungeon. The second half was a more standard desert landscape. Dead and dry dirt, sparse but tenacious plant life, and even more heat. However, despite this part of the landscape being a bit more bearable, the monsters made it not so.

The third detail they focused on was the monster type. This dungeon held two monster types, each associated with their part of the landscape. The first was dune worms, and as the name implied, they were worms who worked their way under the sand. These worms would strike from below, slithering through the sand and targeting legs. They were difficult to hit and avoid, but luckily, they were at least somewhat easy to spot. If one saw shifting in the sand, that always meant there was a dune worm underneath. Not only that, but the sand would scratch against their hard carapaces, making it easy to pick out by hearing. Plus, because the nights were so cold, the worms would burrow to retain body heat. Thus, nights on the sand dunes were totally safe. It was only during the day that they would come back and surface.

The second monster lived in the second half of the dungeon on the dirt landscape. These monsters were called fire skinks, and they were lizard creatures that roamed the dry desert. These skinks camouflaged with their environment, making them difficult to initially spot. The smaller ones were only a couple feet long, while the more powerful ones could grow to the size of an adult man. By themselves, the skinks weren't so bad. However, these skinks were capable of spitting fire, making them a dangerous foe to face.

The page described how many divers would fail to spot a skink and then get ambushed by a wave of fire. It wasn't uncommon for eyes to be burned or leather armor to be incinerated. The fire would soften their targets, and then they would rapidly crawl over and tear at the target with their claws and sharp teeth. Along the way, they would continue to spit fire. The only consolation was that they only had so much fire to spit, but if there were enough skinks, then it would seem endless.

Needless to say, they were a very risky monster to fight. However, there was no way for the group to avoid them. Their job was to retrieve 140 grade 3 fire mana crystals, and the source of these crystals was the fire skinks. They would have to kill, at the minimum, 140 fire skinks. Not only would this take a long time, but it was very likely that they would get hurt in the process.

Other than the landscape and the monsters, they read that there were 4 havens. One was stationed near the entrance, two were stationed in the middle of the sand dune area toward the east and west, and the other one was stationed in the middle of the dirt desert in the second half of the dungeon, altogether creating a diamond shape. Alec immediately knew they would have to make their way toward the furthest haven, but that haven was 65 miles away from the entrance. It would be a treacherous walk there, and he suddenly wasn't feeling so confident.

But he didn't back down just yet. At the very least, they would try their hand. If it proved to be impossible, then they would just have to drop the job. Thankfully, the academy didn't punish one for failing to complete a job, so there was no penalty other than the money they spent to prepare and for transportation.

The group went through all the information several times before adapting their plans. Since the dungeon was so large, they would need to bring plenty of food with them. However, there was another piece of information they learned which they weren't sure how to feel about. Next to the monster descriptions, it indicated if they were edible or not. The dune worm wasn't, but the fire skink was. This meant that they could get food from the skinks and water from their water mages. Technically, this guaranteed their long term survival, but they weren't sure if they wanted to survive in such a way. They decided to figure out how long they would spend on each dive when they went in for the first time.

With that, they basically had everything they needed. Since it was the end of the day though, Alec didn't want to go in just yet. The group decided to find an inn for the night before heading in tomorrow.

"Two rooms for the next three nights."

"6 gold."

"Alright."

Alec nodded as he paid an innkeeper and received two keys. The group then found their rooms and divided between boys and girls.

Alec, Garet, and Dirk walked into their room beside the girls'. Inside were two beds, both of which were decently clean. The walls and floors had scuff marks everywhere while the table had marks of vandalism all over its surface. The three glanced at everything, and Alec sighed.

"Well, you get what you pay for. Though I expected more out of 6 gold. Oh well, who wants the beds? The other can take the floor. We got plenty of blankets."

"You guys take the beds."

Dirk spoke as he tossed his bags on the table. Garet and Alec looked at each other before accepting his arrangement. The beds weren't exactly pristine, but they were better than the floor. Plus, neither felt like rebuking Dirk.

Alec and Garet prepared their beds while Dirk took out blankets and claimed a section of the floor. Dirk was lent blankets from the other two for more cushion, so he wouldn't have to deal with the hard surface. After the three were set up, Alec left to notify the girls of the time to wake up. Dirk took a seat on his blanket mattress.

"Hey ladies, we wake up at 8 tomo-"

"Hey! Get out!"

"Ah!"

*Bang!*

Suddenly, an odd series of muffled noises came from the wall next to them. Dirk's eyebrow raised confusedly, and Alec came walking back into the room the next moment.

"Sheesh. Of all the times to be changing..."

"Haha! They got you good!"

Garet laughed as he spotted a welt on Alec's forehead. Dirk suddenly understood and shook his head.

After that, the night was calm. The group stayed up for an hour or so more before finally going to sleep.

..........

"Alright! Time to explore."

The next day, Alec smiled with vigorous energy as he stood outside of the dungeon entrance. The rest of the party was behind him, fully geared in their armor. Garet hovered in the middle carrying all of the luggage, as was the job he was given by Alec.

Several other parties were in front of the entrance, waiting to be admitted. Nobody was restricted access to these lower dungeons, and one merely had to log their party down. For this, everyone would use an issued identification. For normal dungeon divers, this was given by the dungeon association. But for people like Dirk who attended the academy, they would use their student identification.

The party took out their student cards. These cards had their names and a special number only used by the school. There was also their Tier and Rank. Finally, the biggest eye catcher was the academy's seal that took up half the card. This was apparently recognizable by any town or city under the Horizon Empire, so no student would ever have trouble receiving services appropriate for their level.

And upon showing the guard their cards, they caught a glimpse of how special it was. The guard looked at them with unconcealed surprise before logging their names and letting them pass. He didn't even ask any questions like he would the other divers.

With that, the party entered. Alec entered first, then Dirk. Just like last time, Dirk felt a feeling of momentary suspension as he passed through the black film of the entrance portal. Upon stepping out though, that feeling vanished, though he was left slightly dizzy.

Maybe as a result of their lesser power, Garet and Casma handled the entrance worse. Everyone quickly got over it though as they were greeted with an oppressive heat and swirling sand.

"So this is it."

Alec stood in front, taking a look around. Behind them was the entrance of the dungeon, behind which was a wall that extended upward into the sky and outward toward the horizon. The ground they were stepping on was a rock platform with a layer of coarse sand over it, likely placed here intentionally for convenience. After taking a few steps though, the party walked onto the sand dunes.

"Look, there's the first haven."

Spotting something in the distance, Casma pointed. Everyone looked to see a gray stone building between them and the horizon. It was surrounded by hills of orange sand, but the pathway there was mostly flat. There were several other groups of divers walking to it in a line.

"Well, let's go then."

Waving, Alec began their march. With Garet in the middle, the five walked in a diamond formation, doing their best to follow the advice of their teachers.

As they walked across the sand, the group was quick to realize how difficult it would be to fight. There was barely any solid footing below them, and sudden movements would result in slipping. It greatly mitigated their power and it made them nervous to encounter anything within the dunes.

It was only Dirk who already knew the consequences of being in a sandy place. Even he didn't have a way to circumvent this problem though. The only thing he could do to maintain peak combat ability was to find balance and stability in his movements. Simply put, he would just need to adapt, and he knew he was at least good at that.

Luckily, maybe because the dune worms knew this pathway was frequented by divers, the group didn't encounter any on the way toward the haven. After a long walk, they finally entered the stone fortress, relieving themselves of the blistering desert heat.

"Ugh, that was more difficult than I thought."

Garet was the first to lay down. The inside of the haven was easily 30 degrees cooler than outside. Dirk estimated that the ambient heat of the desert approached 110 degrees. It definitely was unbearable for a normal human across long periods of time, but they weren't normal.

Dirk and Alec had the fire attributes, rendering them basically immune to the outside heat. Ava and Casma were also handling it well since they had the water attributes. However, Garet was the odd one out with neither of these attributes. He was an air mage, giving him no noticeable resistance to the heat. He also had full armor on and carried several bags. Thus, he took the full brunt of it. He was already sweating and looked tired.

Alec saw this and frowned. The heat was obviously a problem for their porter, and he clearly couldn't last until the next Haven that was still 60 miles away. Let alone fighting their way there, he would barely be able to walk there.

This was a big problem. They needed to get to the other half of the dungeon to fight the fire skinks, but Garet was their weak link. If they didn't solve this problem, they would need to leave him behind. This would make them down a man and force them to carry their bags themselves, reducing their fighting ability.

Alec pondered for a while, the problem becoming obvious to everyone else. After some time though, Ava grabbed her bag from Garet and pulled something out. It was a disk that looked to be made of ice.

"Here. Put this on your chest."

"...Alright."

Garet took the ice disk confusedly. He did what she said though, and when the disk stuck to his skin, he was flooded with a cooling sensation, as if his veins were filled with ice water.

"Ahhh... This is amazing! What is this?"

"Something from the academy. I had bought it on a whim. Didn't think it would come in handy."

"Well, it's sure saving my life. Thank you."

"Sure. There's one problem though. It only lasts for a day of use before running out of cooling power. If we don't use it at night, it might be able to get you through two days."

"So we need to fix this problem within the next two days."

Alec chimed in. He noticed how useful that ice disk was, but it was unfortunate that it wouldn't last longer. They would be here for much longer than two days.

"We should check the dungeon association. I know for a fact that they sell things there, ones that would help with the dungeon we're in. There has to be something that can help protect Garet from the heat. It might cost more gold, but there's no way around it."

"So are we leaving?"

"Yes. Come on."

Saying that, the group turned around and left the Haven, walking back to the dungeon exit.