Chapter 9

Peter had been walking for five days before he saw his destination. It was the massive city of Moralt, the largest city bordering the wilderness. It was large, and heavily fortified by enormous gray walls. During its formative years, the kingdom of Rivalt had been threatened by its northern neighbor, Geran. Rivalt claimed the forests where he had found the dungeon, and had fought a war to hold them. Moralt was built to fortify the frontier, and had grown into a rich city, since it was the hub for trade flowing throughout the network of villages in the forest.

Peter knew of least three adventurer guilds operating in the city, and he was going to the largest. The Silver Eagle Guild was actually the largest guild in the northern Rivalt region, with connections all over the kingdom, and even a few outside. They would pay quite well for information on the dungeon, especially since they didn’t want to lose out to any regional competitors.

When Peter finally reached the city early in the afternoon, he didn’t head to the guildhouse. Instead, he went to the market district. He sold all of the loot he had claimed from the dead the necromancer, as well as the smaller mana crystal. He netted over sixty gold coins, an enormous sum. The twenty coins he could expect from the guild would have been enough to retire comfortably off, and sixty would let him live a luxurious life. But he had no desire to settle for luxurious, if he played his cards right, he could become wealthy enough to rival some smaller noble houses.

He traveled to the city hall, and arranged a meeting with an administrator. Since Moralt was the regional hub, and the center of the duchy of the same name, it was also the in charge of the undeveloped northern forests. There was no noble in charge of the area, which was large enough to form a new county or three, since the majority of it was still very unpopulated and underdeveloped. However, Peter would be able to buy deeds to the forested land at the city hall in Moralt.

The land was incredibly cheap, and with his sixty gold coins, he was able to claim a large area. It was about one gold per square mile, but since he was purchasing so much he was able to get a deal. He purchased seventy-five square miles around the dungeon. His land stretched from a river to the south of the plateau, to the hills behind it. The river was in the center of a large valley, so he had an eight-mile long stretch of shoreline along the river, centered on the line connecting the dungeon to the closest point of the river. He claimed about a half mile to the other side of the river as well, since he figured that riverfront land would be valuable soon. His property extended almost nine miles behind the river, up to the foothills of the mountains that formed the northern wall of the valley.

He was pleased with how much land he had been able to claim, especially since it contained a dungeon. The only people who had a dungeon within their lands were dukes, and only three existed in the kingdom. Out of the seven dukes, the ones who had claim to a dungeon’s riches were by far the most wealthy. Guilds would pay a premium to be allowed to set up on the land, and would pay a percentage off all dungeon related income to the landowner in a tax. Peter was going to get rich. Very rich.

After purchasing the land, he walked to the Silver Eagle Guildhouse to report the dungeon. It was a large, three-story stone building that took up an entire city block. The first floor was a tavern and meeting area for guild members, as well as where they could receive assignments and turn completed missions in for rewards. He assumed the second floor was quarters for guild members, and the top level was for the local guild master as well as assorted administrative staff. There was a courtyard behind the main building, mostly for training, as well as a smithy and attached warehouse.

He strode over to the front desk and waited for the receptionist to acknowledge him. After she finished some paperwork, she looked up and greeted him.

“Hello sir. What brings you to the Silver Eagle Guild?”

“Um hello, I’d like to report a new dungeon I found," Peter replied.

Her eyes rose sharply at his request. She smiled and asked him to wait while she found someone qualified to deal with him. She returned with a well dressed older man, who seemed to have an air of power about him. The man introduced himself as the local guildmaster, Jack. Peter gave the location of the dungeon, and received a voucher for twenty-five gold coins if the report was confirmed. He was offered a room in the guildhouse until the report was confirmed, which he took the man up on. All in all, Peter was quite pleased with the way things had gone, and was optimistic about the future. It was like his grandpa told him. It’s always darkest before dawn.

The C ranked adventurer team Alex was on had received a mission to confirm a report of a new dungeon in the wilds to the north. They were the highest ranked team in the city at the time, so they had received this top priority mission. If there was a dungeon, they needed to clear and rank it, as well as return with any resources they could find. The guild would use the reports to determine how many resources to allocate to the dungeon. If they found anything particularly valuable, the guild would invest a lot into developing a proper outpost for the guild. Alex hoped they found something good. It would help line his pockets if the dungeon was particularly valuable, and he had his eye on a new bow.

It took the party six days to find the plateau the dungeon was reported to be inside of. They were weary, and it was difficult to navigate the nearly untouched forest. There were isolated villages all across the forest, but none were in the vicinity of the dungeon. Alex was surprised the man had even discovered it, if it actually existed, since it was three days from the nearest village.

They climbed up the gently sloping front of the plateau, and saw that there was indeed some sort of structure on top of it. The hill opened onto a flat plain, clear of trees, with cliffs on three sides. They had an amazing view of the forest from the top of the hill, which was just above the canopy. They set about constructing their camp on top of the hill before going anywhere near the entrance, which was a small stone building containing nothing but a staircase.

The stairs were ten feet wide, which was nice since it let them cover each other on their descent. Alex was already fairly certain it was a dungeon at this point, without even entering it. An inviting stone building with a wide staircase delving deep into the earth was not something that just existed in the middle of the forest for no reason. He was excited about the prospects of the guild getting their hands on a dungeon. The wealth could provide would help set them up too expand past just the northern region, and maybe become the most influential guild in the kingdom. No guild had free rights to a dungeon, and if they could claim it as their own the guild would benefit greatly, and with it, so would Alex. A rising tide raises all ships after all.

Once their camp was set up and they were prepared to tend to any wounds they may receive, the group prepared to enter the dungeon. Their excitement was palpable, and everyone was grinning like a sugared up kid during festival. The instant they entered the building, they felt a familiar pressure in the air. The energy of a dungeon. They were all familiar with dungeons, having trained in a few during their ascension through the ranks. All they had to do now was rank the dungeon and determine its value.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they all paused in shock. They had entered a large empty room, one that could probably hold a hundred people comfortably. But past the room was something like a door to a different world. The dungeon looked to be filled with sunlight, coming from strange organic bulbs hanging from the ceiling. But the actual caves were amazing. The foliage was so dense, it looked like they were about to step into a jungle. And they could hear the chirping and buzzing of thousands of insects.

The air felt humid and heavy, and there was a richness to the atmosphere that must have been a combination of the massive amounts of life and the dense mana. Even from where he stood, Alex could see a few rare herbs that would sell for tens of coppers apiece. He was an alchemist and a ranger, so he was a sort of back up healer for the group, as well as someone who was able to find coins almost anywhere. This first hallway was full of coins. Well, stuff that he would turn into coins. The guild would be ecstatic.

They entered the hallway, and Alex made sure to grab the valuable plants, as well as a few bugs he knew to have useful alchemical properties. The vibrancy of the cave was astounding to him, and he found he was often pushing through large ferns or tangles of vines. There was a clear path through the center of the cave, but the edges were covered in life, and he was rooting through it looking for useful ingredients. The rest of the party was keeping watch, they let Alex do his thing, since he always managed to make them a good bit of extra money.

Alex looked up sharply as he heard a scratching sound. He saw an enormous, nearly three-foot-long ant skittering towards him, and its size wasn’t the strangest part. It had a black and purple iridescent carapace, that looked like the night sky if stars and northern lights were a deep violet. He lobbed one of the daggers he had secreted about his armor through one if its unblinking eyes, killing it instantly. When he examined the ant, he was startled to see it was moderately attuned to dark magic, and its carapace held a small amount of dark mana. It would be very useful as a catalyst for any potions that required dark mana, such as an invisibility potion.

This low-level monster’s body could be worth up to twenty coppers, maybe more if some organs turned out to be useful. A family of four could live off five coppers a day, so this dungeon was sure to attract people from all over. He put the body in his bag of holding so he could do a more in-depth examination later. After conferring with his team, they decided to continue. At the end of the room was a small stone box with a couple of copper coins in it. The group nodded in silent approval, it would be such a pain to look for dropped loot in this dense dungeon.

The dungeon was full of these ants, and their mage's examination skill showed they were a previously unknown species called a dark dungeon ant. The caves weren’t linear, but as the dungeon ranking team, they had to completely explore the dungeon to properly gauge its danger, as well as make sure there were no hidden surprises. They had killed about fifty of them, and cleared almost thirty rooms, before they came to what seemed to be the end. The final room held something even stranger than the ants. According to the mage, it was a stone centipede.

It was huge, and dangerously tough. Alex’s arrows even bounced off the brute. Until he used a skill, drill shot, allowing him to bypass some armor. It still barely damaged the massive centipede, and it took three more shots to the same spot to weaken the armor enough for him to get a more damaging attack in. He decided he had tested it enough, and he called for his team to finish it off. Once it was dead, he stored it’s body, and was glad his bag reduced the weight of everything in it, since the centipede may as well have been made of stone for how heavy it was.

After some discussion, they decided the dungeon was F rank overall, but the boss was definitely D rank. Anyone could enter it, but they would be warned not to challenge the boss without some D ranked adventurers in the party. They were getting ready to leave through the convenient exit in the boss room, but Alex stopped them.

“Something’s missing,” he stated, and they all paused for a minute, silently agreeing with him. It was their healer, Anna, who spoke up first.

“The heart crystal isn't here.”

They all looked around and realized she was correct. Usually, the dungeon heart would be in a room after the boss room, to avoid becoming collateral damage, but this dungeon had no final room, and the heart was nowhere to be seen. Alex looked around, and behind some dense foliage, he found a crevice. He had seen crevices like this earlier, but now that he really looked at it he realized it was much deeper than he had expected.

He had to get down on his stomach and worm his way forward. He called for his team to follow, but only Anna and their mage, Jacob, could fit. Their warrior, Harold, refused to take his armor off to follow them. After crawling for what felt like miles, but was probably only fifty feet, and killing a few ants, Alex broke out of the cramped crevice. What he saw took his breath away.

He stood in a cavern that made the tropical cave system look like a desert. There were ferns the size of trees, nearly scraping the ceiling forty feet above them. Plants of outrageous proportions grew everywhere, and the vibrancy and amount of life took his breath away. The mana was much denser as well, almost like the fifth floor of a normal dungeon. This was certainly not a normal dungeon.

“It’s not summoning monsters, it’s farming them,” he whispered, mostly to himself, but Anna and Jacob heard him and voiced their agreement. When he looked around, he saw many many monsters. There were hundreds of the ants, and dozens of massive centipedes. The party would have no trouble killing them, but they feared that if they killed the monsters the dungeon was using to supply the caves they would anger it.

They made their way to the other end of the cavern, almost a quarter mile away, and tried to avoid killing anything that didn’t attack them. When they reached the back of the cave they saw something new. There was a massive gleaming sentinel. When Jacob examined it, he broke into a sweat. It was named, and named Behemoth. A named monster was very dangerous. They could level up if the dungeon let them, and even if they died they could keep their levels.

The gleaming giant, a steel decapede, was larger than any horse Alex had ever seen, and for the first time in the dungeon, he feared for his life. With a screech, the monster charged them. The dungeon seemed to be upset about them being here, and had decided to let them know. They were at a severe disadvantage, since they did not have their warrior to tank the monster on the front line. Alex would have to protect the healer and the mage, and he was mainly an archer.

Luckily the beast was slow, and wouldn’t be able to catch him. He put a few drill shots into it, grabbing its attention, as he led it away from the more vulnerable mana users. Jacob was a fire and air mage, with emphasis on the fire, and he launched a few fire darts into the giant.

Alex was taking quick shots at it, hoping to weaken its armor in one spot enough for either him or Jacob to get a fatal strike past its defense. He was focusing on a point just above its front leg and under the lip of its back plate.

After the tenth arrow, the spot finally cracked, and the body was exposed. He used his rapid shot skill to quickly drive three arrows deep into its body cavity. Its health dropped to almost nothing. Almost. Behemoth gave an angry screech, and its eyes took on a red hue. Its speed doubled, as it charged directly at Alex, swinging its massive front arms. One caught him in his side, shattering his ribcage. He was saved by Jacob, who cast a fireball into the open wound on the massive bug’s thorax. Alex was burned severely by the explosion, but he was alive, and that was why they had a healer.

In a few minutes, Alex was as good as new, aside from the memories of the pain he had been in. He found he was unable to move the giant bug, and he had to settle for taking only its carapace. Even leaving most of the body behind, his dimensional storage bag weighed over three hundred pounds.

When they returned to the boss room, and reunited the party, they had a long discussion. They decided to remain with their original ranking, but would notify the guildmaster that there was a C rank boss in the cave. Nobody below C rank could easily reach the cavern anyway, and people would be strongly advised against it.

They spent three days in and around the dungeon, but never went back into the large cavern. They did not want to test the dungeon's anger again. Most of the time was spent collecting and cataloging plants and animals. Many rare species were relatively abundant in the dungeon, and Alex was certain it would be incredibly profitable for the guild.

When they returned to the guild to submit their report, Guildmaster Jack wanted to meet with them personally. He read through the report, then questioned them on the details that were left out. When they showed him the loot they had collected from the dungeon, he grew very excited. They were led to the courtyard to meet with the guild’s local craftsmen, so they could decide how to use the new resources. While they waited for the specialists to appraise the assorted monster parts, Jack was putting people into action.

He sent messengers to the local city hall to purchase the land, and invited contractors to meet with him. He wanted to set up a functioning dungeon town quickly in an effort to get the money coming in as soon as possible. There would be an enormous return on investment for the guild if they acted quickly.

When he had finished sending out messengers, the craftsmen had finished their assessment. They all had excited grins on their faces, especially the smith. Jack asked for their evaluations. The alchemist started, and he said mostly the same things Alex had said, except the stone centipede carapace could be used to make massive quantities of stoneskin potion, and the metal one could make an even more advanced defense potion.

But the smith had an even more exciting report.

“Well, these ant carapaces could make a very basic set of armor for a low-level rogue type adventurer, and would have an easy time accepting dark type enchantments such as stealth and poison resistance. The stone centipedes would be much stronger, but obscenely heavy, and any adventurer to use armor that heavy could get something much better. But this metal carapace, I’ve never seen anything like it. It is almost as strong as steel, but lighter, and has innate magic. A very skilled smith could forge this without losing the magic or ruining the complex structure that makes it so strong. But this stuff would be almost as enchantable as mithril, although not as strong or as light.”

They were all shocked by this. A material that was a viable substitute for mithril. The amount they had could make two sets of full plate armor, and some weapons. That much mithril equipment would cost thousands to tens of thousands of coins. The potential advancement for the guild was simply ludicrous.

The guildmaster called for a messenger to get the boy who had reported the dungeon, and he intended to reward him well. When the boy came, Jack gave him fifty gold coins, half a platinum, as a reward for giving them information on such a valuable dungeon.

“Thank you, for alerting us to this incredibly valuable dungeon, I’ve doubled the reward, since it was a truly incredible find,” Jack said as he shook Peter's hand. Peter sat down at the table and responded.

“Thank you, But I thought you’d like to enter negotiations first?”

“Negotiations? What do you mean negotiations?”

“So you don't know?” Peter questioned with a laugh.

Just then the messenger sent to purchase the land ran over to the table, bowed to the guildmaster, and gave his report.

“Sir, the land has already been claimed.”

“WHAT? By who”

“Uh, a man named Peter Haroldson”

The guildmaster, with a sour look on his face, slowly turned to look at a smirking Peter.

“These negotiations.”