Double digits guys whoa! Won't get to celebrate this again until triple digits =X I also like to say I suck at names and thinking up name is like the hardest thing for me to do. I think i spend at least 1/3 of the time on this chapter just staring at the screen trying to think up names o.- Hey if anyone has cool names they don't mind me using feel free to post them. Please post if they at male/female name at least and yes I'm that bad with them that if you don't post it I'll probably not figure it out. Feel free to add extra detail like race or even personalities behind the names. (name for places and countries be nice too)

Anyways enjoy the chapter!

*Temporary Settlement Outside Sage’s Dungeon*

Soon after Jake and Ardrylll returned from their mission the Adventurer’s Guild set up a temporary base near the dungeon. Normally a dungeon this close to a city wouldn’t need a settlement near it but Zeal was a small kingdom and they didn’t have a lot of dungeons like the bigger countries. These dungeons could mean the continued survival of the kingdom so they decided to build a dungeon town even though the city of Dawn was only half a day away.

The guild quickly built a temporary base and became the heart of the soon to be dungeon town. Their first order of business was to restrict access to the dungeon which was commonly done for new dungeons as they were too small to handle a lot of people. This allowed each group that went inside to get the most out of their trip. However the real reason was protection of the dungeon. While this dungeon has shown to be very different it was still too weak and if any high rank adventurer sneak in with ill intent then the loss of the dungeon would be detrimental to the kingdom. This was also another reason why everything was being done so fast. The normal procedure of scouting the dungeon, sending an evaluation team, and finally building a dungeon town near it can take months and normally during this time adventurers were free to enter the dungeon as they wished. The key reason why it takes so long was because new dungeons are in a growing phase so it’s changing often. By allowing people to enter, the dungeon can grow so when the evaluation team arrived the dungeon is mostly done with floor 1 and likely to began work on floor 2. However this time they have to rush it because this is too important for the kingdom.

During the first week the guild prevented all access to the dungeon and instead sent out many jobs to survey the area. To encourage people to do these boring tasks the reward was slots to enter the dungeon. Motivated with the chance to explore a new dungeon that had been shown to contain high quality herbs, all the rank F and G adventurers set out to map the area. Due to the large amount of low ranked adventurers, this previously uncharted area was quickly mapped.

The guild master moved there to personally oversee everything that was going on, though the main reason was to keep anyone with ill intent away as few wanted to mess with a retired rank SS adventurer. This, however, had become a nightmare for his vice guild leader back in Dawn. Because of the news of a new dungeon born in the area the Adventurer’s Guild was flood with requests to join. Of course they’re free to enter the dungeon even if they're not in the Adventurer’s guild but once it’s fully opened but they wouldn’t be able to get requests, information, and meet other people to party up. The Adventurer’s Guild can’t just take everyone and their cats as a member though so everyone needs to be tested. Those that are skilled enough are given rank G and those that just aren’t good enough are rejected but they can retake the test in half a year.

Now the biggest problem are those who are good enough but lack experience as they would become trainees and go through a boot camp provided by the Adventurer’s Guild. Before the boot camp was always managed by the guild master himself, he took it as his personal hobby to train the young ones, but since he’s gone it fell to the vice guild master. Due to the huge influx of people signing up she was having to deal with a large amount of beginners. The part that infuriated her the most was that this whole boot camp thing was the guild master’s idea. Normally the Adventurer’s Guild just passed you and then let you go figure thing out on your own. The guild master, however, had a hobby of trying to find talent so he set up this whole stupid boot camp so he could teach those youngsters. What made it all worse was that when he left he simply said “This is a good chance to smooth out that temper of yours or else you’re never going to find someone willing to marry you. Hahahaha!” After that everyone was walking on pins for a whole week.

After the first weeks passed adventurers finally started to enter the dungeon. Since all the adventurers going in were low ranked ones most of them didn’t have their own party so the guild master made it for them. While it seemed random the guild master crafted these parties with care to ensure them the best survival rates. Many adventurers had their first taste of a dungeon and were very excited about the rewards. The herbs they found inside the dungeon were at a floor 3 or later quality which net them an earning well above what they would normally get. But for those with talent the most important thing they got out of it was combat experience. The first two rooms allowed them to gain confidence in themselves as they fought solo or duo goblins but once they entered the right tunnel, the left is restricted and adventurers were told to not go in there, the real fights began. Fighting organized monsters was a fairly rare occurrence for low rank adventurers like themselves and the fight against the group of 5 and 10 goblins were very beneficial to them.

One team was allowed to go in in the morning and then another in the afternoon with about 4 hours break in between for the dungeon to recover. Soon three weeks passed like this before something changed.

There was a huge commotion at the Adventurer’s Guild’s temporary base as a group of 5 arrived in the morning. Who were they? They were the rank A adventurer team that was requested to do the dungeon evaluation run. For an deserted area like this, rank A adventurers were stuff of legends. Most people here had only seen rank C adventurers and even they were a rare sight. Although the guild master was a retired rank SS adventurer no one really took him seriously due to his nature. Almost every adventurer crowded around to take a look at a rank A team.

Alex’s team was away on an request when the dungeon was discovered so they didn’t know of it right away. They returned 2 weeks ago and got the news of the dungeon and the request. This shocked them greatly as they’re a rank A team. Normally they’re asked to evaluate 50th+ floors, not the first floor and especially not one that has only been discovered for 2 weeks. Alex was going to decline until he saw who sent this request.

“It’s from old man Max…” Alex slowly said and everyone else in the team became silent “If it’s that old coot then there must be a good reason. Is everyone ok with taking this request?”

After a moment of hesitation the rest of the team said “Agreed.” With that they began their trip halfway across the kingdom and arrived at the temporary dungeon town after two weeks. They were immediately swarmed by a crowd once people recognized them.

Soon the guild master came out to greet them and lead them into the a private room.

“So old man, care to tell us why you called us here to do a dungeon evaluation run floor 1 of a brand new dungeon?” Alex said to the guild master as soon as they sat down.

“Hahahaha, I thought I let you guys see your future training ground. Hahaha.” The guild master laughed. Alex couldn’t help but sigh as this old man always does what he pleases but he hasn’t been wrong once.

“Our training ground? Maybe in a few hundreds years.” A girl wearing a pure white cloak that covers her completely retorted at the guild master.

“While dungeons are an excellent places they also take time to grow. It will be a very long time, probably after we are long dead.” This time a young man in a very clean blue robe talked.

“While the dungeon right now is probably as easy to crush as an ant, I’m not so sure it will really take that long.” The guild master chuckled and toss a piece of herb at them.

Alex caught it and said “This is a medium minor herb, what about it?”

The guild master let out a smirk and said “This was found in the first room after the entrance on the first floor.”

“What?” The girl in the white cloak grabbed the minor her from Alex’s hand. After carefully examine it for a while she couldn’t help but exclaim “There’s a high concentration of mana in this minor herb. The only reason it’s a medium quality herb is because the herb itself is too young but the mana has already reached top quality. This stuff only appears in floor 5 boss rooms!”

The guild master’s smirk got even bigger as he laughed “As expected of the kingdom’s youngest arch mage. Most people can only tell it’s a medium quality herb but you were able to notice how much mana it really had. Your mana control has gotten better since we last meet. Hahahaha.”

“Shut up old man.” The girl respondedly coldly and handed the herb back. “With this mana concentration at only 1 floor this dungeon has potential.”

“That would be an understatement.” The guild master said while shaking his head. “I sent Jake and Ardryll to do the scout mission and here’s their report.” With that the threw a copy of the report on the table.

Alex picked it up and read the report. The more he read the more his harder his brow furrowed together and in the end said “So even Jake and Ardryll didn’t feel safe enough to push deeper in…”

Suddenly the guild master turned his head and looked outside.

Alex and his team suddenly became alert.

“What’s wrong old man?” Alex asked but just as he finished speaking the guild master turn his head back and said with a smile “Oh it’s nothing, just a little bug.”

Alex pause for a moment and then said “Well, I can see why you called us but how did you know this before they went?”

“Hahaha, I may have retired but I still know a lot more than you youngers.” The guild master replied with a huge smirk on his face.

Alex couldn’t help but sigh, they‘ve all been too used to his old man that they forget this guy was a legend during his younger days. “I can’t keep underestimating people like this. It’ll lead my team into danger someday.” Alex thought to himself.

“Thank you for the information old man. we’ll rest for today and head in tomorrow.” Alex finally made a decision and they left left for their resting place.

*Back at the dungeon*

It has been three weeks since adventures have been coming in and Sage has manage to collect a lot of mana from the adventurers to level up. He just managed to reach level 15, increasing his mana pool, and he gained the ability to summon a type of plant that would cause people to fall asleep. It wasn’t very powerful and anyone who gained some control of the mana in their body can easily stop the effect but it was something that adventurers could sell.

In truth. Sage’s leveling was a bit slow, normally there wouldn’t be a guild restricting entry to a new dungeon or making sure they traveled in groups. This entire time only groups of adventurers ever came in so they were all very safe. So far only total 5 people have died and that was because they didn’t listen to the Adventurer’s Guild and headed down the left tunnel. Their greed got the better of them and the combination of traps and Kobolds wiped out the group.

“I wonder when they’ll be there.” Sage muttered to himself as he meditated with the mimic slime next to him. The mimic slime seem to prefer to hang around Sage’s secret chamber and never left. Sage didn’t mind it as he only had slimes for the sake of having slimes and for some reason watching this one help calm himself down.

“They should be here soon. It’s almost noon so I’ll go check if anything new happened in the camp outside.” Alice replied as she came out of her room and headed toward the secret passage Sage made for her.

“Be careful Alice. Even though you haven’t been found yet you never know what will happen.” Sage said with a hint of worry in his voice. Alice has been going out to spy on the camp outside every day for a week now trying to gather some information on the team that would be doing the dungeon evaluation.

“You worry too much silly.” Alice’s voice echoed through the tunnel as she left. Through this tunnel made just for her she quickly exited the side of the mountain and moved towards the camp. Lucky for her it’s still just a camp so the forest nearby hasn’t been all cleared out yet so she easily got close.

Soon she arrived near where all the adventurers were gathered. She hid herself in the trees and carefully listened.

“Hey did you guys see! A rank A team! How amazing is that?”

“What? A rank A team? What is a rank A team doing here?”

“You guys sure are slow on the news. The guild master asked them to come to do the dungeon evaluation run.”

“What? How did the guild master manage to get a team like that to come for such a small matter?”

“Didn’t you pay attention at all during boot camp? The guild master is a retired rank SS adventurer. I heard the leader of this rank A team was personally taught by him.”

“Wait you mean that was true? I thought he was just bluffing. He sure doesn’t look like a rank SS adventurer.”

“So which rank A team it is?”

“It’s Alex’s team.”

“You mean team STAR?”

“Yes that team.”

“What’s team STAR?”

“I can’t believe you don’t even know that! Team STAR is made up by Zeal’s five up and coming young geniuses. Each of them represents a point on a star. The reasoning was that a star made of stars would shine even brighter. Alex is the team leader. He’s a master swordsman who was trained by guild master Max himself when he was a kid. Seith’s an elf ranger who’s a master of archery and stealth. Xanthe is the fiery tempered blond bruiser that prefers to talk with her fists. Josh is know as the ‘Kind Cleric’ and will help anyone in need. Finally Elsa, the genius mage that graduated from the magic academy at the the top of her class. She’s also the most mysterious one as she always has a cloak that hides how she looks.”

“I remember now wasn’t there story about her…”

At this point Alice’s mind was blank as she heard the news. A rank A team? A rank A team? “A rank A team!” Alice finally shouted out. A moment later she realize what happened and became very nervous. She quickly looked around and found that, luckily, everyone else is so loud that her shout really didn’t raise too much attention.

Just as she was repairing to back away she suddenly froze. Sweat pour out of her forehead and back as she felt some powerful force locking on to her. However that feeling disappeared as fast as it came and she was once again able to move. She rushed back to the dungeon and returned through the secret tunnel once more.

Sage saw the messy state Alice was in and immediately became very worried as he asked “Alice what happen? Who did this...”

Before Sage could finish Alice shouted word by word “RANK A TEAM!”

Edited by: mossclaw64