Here is chapter 11 hope you all enjoy it!

“What?” Sage was confused as Alice was out of breath.

Alice took a deep breath and said “Rank A Team! They got a rank A team here to do the dungeon evaluation!”

Sage was startled for a bit and then said “So?”

Alice was stunned for a moment and said “So? So It’s a rank A team Sage! That’s like a team that can clear level 100+ dungeons!”

“But they’re only here do the dungeon evaluation right? So what is the problem?” Sage is still confused at why Alice seem to be so tense. “More importantly what happened to you?”

Alice finally fell silent, after a while tears fell from her eye as she rushed into her room. Sage was dumbfounded at all of this and couldn’t help but mutter “Did the news of a rank A team shock her that much? Normally I’m the one who panics… is that what I’m like when I lose control? This lack of control over my emotions is simply too dangerous but nothing I can really do anything about right now. Ah… good thing Alice is here to pull me back.”

Sage thought he should do something to cheer Alice up but he honestly had no idea as he had almost zero social skills back when he was know as the Sage Emperor. Luckily for him Alice came back out a few hours later and acted like nothing ever happened. Sage didn’t want to upset Alice so he didn’t question her any further.

Sage had completed a lot of the expansion for the first floor but none of it was connected yet. After some careful discussion with Alice they decided to connect them after the evaluation team is done because the evaluation is a rank A team so just by having them Sage would get a lot of mana from them and level up.

*Camp outside the dungeon*

“This place is horrible. There are only tents here and there are so many people staring at us when we go outside.” Elsa has been complaining since he settled down. She wanted to go and do the dungeon evaluation now because she was interested but Alex insisted that they get a good night’s rest before heading out.

“We traveled for 2 weeks straight to get here so it is good to get some rest. Even though the dungeon pose no threat to us it is still best to go in fully prepared.” Josh had been calming Else down for a while now. Due to his good nature even Else, who is know to be fairly selfish, can’t deal with Josh that well and finally accepted it.

The team stayed in the area the guild prepared for them the entire time because they simply attracted too much attention if they went out. The guild master came by to chat with them for a bit, mostly seeing how they’ve progressed, while making fun of them. While the team did find the guild master to be kinda of an annoying old man all of them respect him for what he’s done.

They all went to sleep early and prepared to wake up at the crack of dawn to enter the dungeon and ,because this is a only the first floor ,they planned to finish by early afternoon. The night passed peacefully in the camps.

*Morning the next day outside the dungeon.*

Alex double checked all his equipment and then turned to his team “Are you guys all prepared? Remember, even though it is only the first floor of a new dungeon it is very different from normal. While nothing should be a threat it’s best to be careful.”

“Ya ya, let’s get going already! I want to see for myself how those herbs came to be.” Elsa was ready to just rush in with her most powerful magic and find what she wanted.

“I hope the dungeon boss can withstand more than 1 punch or else this is going to be a snooze fest!” Xanthe cracked her knuckles as she too is about to charge inside and slaughter everything.

Josh quickly step forward blocking her and said “Now remember to hold back. This is a brand new dungeon and we wouldn’t want to destroy the dungeon now do we.”

“Our duty is to evaluate this dungeon as it’s very important to the kingdom. Please refrain from doing anything that might damage this valuable resource.” Seith looked at Xanthe with a very serious expression.

Xanthe let out a sigh and replied “Fine fine I’ll hold back but the boss is mine!”

Alex felt helpless as he replied “Fine but no area wide attacks as you might damage or destroy the dungeon core. This is a new dungeon so the core should be close to the boss room and Else, don’t even think about doing anything to the dungeon core.” Alex last words caught Elsa completely off guard and woke her from her fantasy of experimenting on the dungeon core that could produce this mana density.

“Alright since this is all settled let’s move out then.” With that Alex and this team entered the dungeon.

*Sage’s Secret Chamber*

“So they’re finally here…” Sage stared at the group that entered “I wonder how strong rank A is.” With that he tried to scan them and immediately felt a headache.

Alice seem to notice what Sage was trying to do and quickly said “Don’t try to probe them, I forgot to tell you this but adventurers do have a method of shielding themselves with mana. Normally rank F’s and G’s protection is too weak to block you out. Until you’re much stronger you won’t be able to scout their abilities.”

After hearing this Sage stopped trying and the headache disappeared “Why was I able to scan the two rank C then?”

“That’s because they didn’t try to hide themselves. They probably didn’t think much of it and decide to not waste the mana but it seems this rank A team is taking this seriously.” Alice is started to get a little nervous and moved all over the room.

The fight isn’t very exciting as this is a rank A team and no matter how much Sage have tried to train his monsters they basically die if a rank A adventurer so much as looked at them. The team easily wiped out the first room, well not really the team but more like just one person. A girl with long blonde hair who easily obliterated the goblins with a single punch.

Sage’s eyes were glued on to her during the fight. Although the fights lasted less than 1 second for each goblin and she only threw punches Sage could tell how talented she was. Afterall Sage has taught genius after genius so he can easily tell who really has potential. “If I can only get someone like her on my side then I’ll have a guardian that can keep me safe while I recover my soul…” Sage couldn’t help but think these thoughts. He even thought of trying to communicate with them and exchange his teaching for protecttion but in the end he knew that was just far too dangerous.

After clearing out the first two rooms the group stopped there for a bit.

*The second room*

“According to the reports the two tunnels leads to two different section of the dungeon. The left tunnel goes to an area filled with traps and there are also kobolds that can hide their presence in there as well. I believe Seith and Elsa can easily take care of that section?” Alex turned to Seith and he nodded in reply. He turned to Elsa and only to find her on the ground staring intently at a patch of herbs. “Elsa?”

“Ya, sure, whatever you say leader.” Elsa half heartedly replied and muttered “The mana concentration is so high for a floor 1 dungeon. I just can’t wait to see what is further down!”

“The right tunnel connects to a section of the dungeon that has group of goblins. Reports have it that they work together and are trained compare to normal monsters.” And before Alex could continue Xanthe shouted “Those are all mine! I hope they put up a fight least!”

Alex was speechless, Xanthe has always love to fight but he has no idea how she get so pumped about fighting things this week. He finally understood what the old man meant when he said that if Xanthe had the right environment then she would quickly become stronger than all of them. She’s a fighting manic and will always go at 100% no matter what. After they agreed on the teams they split up.

*Left tunnel*

Elsa and Seith walked down the tunnel, Seith suddenly stops Elsa and said “There are pitfall traps ahead with slimes in them. Follow my lead.”

However Elsa completely ignored him, she walked forward and said “Seith, you know how powerful my detection magic is so please stop it with these pointless warning. Now this slime sure is interesting.” Elsa waved his hand and one of the pitfall trap quickly collapse as a slime flew out. The slime tried hard to move but something is holding it making it unable to move at all.

“This slime is slightly blue due to all the high density of mana, very interesting! I’ll take one for my studies.” With that she chanted a spell as a magic circle appeared under the slime and then the slime disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Seith could only let out a sigh as they moved forward. The first room was a complete cakewalk for them as both of them are well adapted at detecting all the traps. After exploring the room Elsa was very excited to find the Para Herb which is used to heal paralysis and once again it was filled with mana. Only if the herb is older it would be high quality instead of just medium.

They continued to the second room where Elsa boldly walked across the room. “Wait…” Seith said but was instantly cut off by Elsa “I told you I can detect anything as well as you do. Don’t think I didn’t notice those five kobolds. Although their technique of blending in with the surrounding mana is interesting their use of it is simply too poor.” With that 5 rays of light shot out from her in different directions leaving behind 5 burned kobold corpses.

The next two rooms went similarly as Elsa force her way through by sheer power and Seith just silently kept watch. He knew there was no point in arguing with her so he just kept vigilant. After passing through 4 rooms they finally entered an extra large room…

*Right tunnel*

Alex, Josh, and Xanthe walked down the right tunnel and as they neared the opening to the next room Xanthe was about to dash into the room but was held back by Alex.

“Hey what gives? I thought we agreed on letting me do all the fighting!” Xanthe was not happy about being stopped when she was this excited.

“Let me fight this room, we are here for a dungeon evaluation and have to test how strong the monsters are. If you just kill them all with one punch then that’s not every informative is it?” Alex slowly explained to Xanthe, although this wasn’t strictly required he was very interested about the monsters once he heard the reports.

“Fine!” Xanthe unwillingly back off to the side.

Alex walked slowly into the room and got the attention of the 5 goblins. He took a defensive stance as he allowed the goblins to attack him. However to his disappointment while the goblins are working as a team they weren’t nearly as good as the report from Jake and Ardryll. He was very confused as he dragged it on for a bit longer to give the goblin a chance to act. However the goblin didn’t get any better, while they know some basic teamwork it is still very clear that they aren’t that used to working together. Finally he decided it was enough testing and ended it.

“Ok Xanthe I got what I needed so the rest of the monsters are all yours.” Alex turned and said to Xanthe who happily jogged toward the second room. Alex and Josh could only wrily smile at each other and follow her.

The second room had 10 goblins and like the 5 before them only knew some teamwork and was far inferior to the ones in Jake and Ardryll report. Xanthe drag out the fight a bit herself dodging and moving but all the goblin were once again obliterated them in one punch.

Then they moved onto the second room and that’s where things changed. There was 10 goblins and 5 kobolds waiting in ambush. The first thing that surprised them was of course the ambush, since one had made it this far they didn’t know it was there. It was very shocking to see kobold and goblin working together but in the end it is only a slight shock as it still pose no real threat to them. The second surprise was that this group of monster were far stronger than the previous group. The teamwork the goblin and kobold was great and could have easily caught low level adventurers’ party off guard.

“Now this is more like it!” Xanthe is always up for a good fight and seeing the monsters fight like this just made her more excited. Although they were much more coordinated they were still no match for Xanthe who, after toying with them for a while, once again obliterated them.

Alex was confused because this was the type of fighting level matches the ones from Jake and Ardryll report but why only now and not the earlier rooms? As he was thinking about it he suddenly heard Josh calling him and realized Xanthe has already ran toward the next room so he had to quickly follow.

This room had 15 goblins and 7 kobold which let Xanthe have her share of fun before she wiped this group out single handedly as well. Once again this group of monster showed much better fighting abilities than the first two rooms. Alex thought about it but finally give up trying to figure out why.

With this room cleared they moved into the next room which turn out to be an extra large room.

There were some herbs growing around the edges of the room and a group of 3 goblins walking around. Xanthe immediately charged forward at the group of goblins. Halfway there something suddenly lit up under her feet causing her to stop for a split second before she heard a shattering sound and she could move again. She was caught completely off guard and almost tripped but in the end regained her balance and wiped out the 3 goblins.

“What was that…” Alex muttered but just as this moment they saw a flash of white light followed by a girl’s scream. “That sounded like Elsa! Quick everyone let’s head over there!”

The three of them ran toward that direction only to find Elsa and Seith perfectly fine.

“Are you ok Elsa? What just happened?” Alex let out a breath seeing that his teammate was fine.

“Oh, it was nothing. There seem to be some kind of trap that let out a flash of white light to blind your vision. It just completely caught me off guard and surprised me. I’m honestly very interested in what kind of trap it was as it completely avoided our detection.” Elsa calmly replied trying to hide the embarrassment of her scream.

Josh pondered for a bit and said “We encountered something similar too, when Xanthe was running toward some monsters something lit up under her feet and manage to snare her for a split second. Normally Xanthe’s keen battle perception isn’t any worse than your detection magic or Seith’s detection skill.”

“It seem to be some kind of trap made by the dungeon, this place just get more and more interesting.” Elsa seem very happy about this turn of events.

“Well I believe are should be close to the final boss room let’s move ahead.” Alex said this after pondering for a bit and lead the group forward.

*Sage’s Secret Chamber*

Sage and Alice watched the whole thing as the rank A team just sweep through the dungeon without even breaking as sweat.

“They are unstoppable!” Alice complained, she still felt very cheated.

“Not much we can do... “ Sage helplessly replied and then as he watched the fight in the right side of the dungeon he suddenly froze.

Alice didn’t notice this and kept on complaining about how overpowered this dungeon evaluation team is and how it is unfair to them.

“Oh look Sage! The traps you invented worked! I mean they didn’t really do any harm to them at all but at least they fell for it.” Alce was very happy the adventurers fell for the traps, made her feel like they had a chance. However she soon realize Sage wasn’t responded and said “Sage are you there? Don’t be so shocked by what has happened it is a rank A team after all.”

However still no reply, after waiting for an awkward moment Alice was ready to use her magic to slap Sage again when Sage suddenly bursted out laughing.

“Hahahaha, such a huge flaw and I didn’t even realize it. Hahahaha.” Sage continued laughing “Now these past 2 month of hard work all went to waste. I can’t believe I didn’t realize something so simple. Hahahaha.” Although Sage is laughing but Alice could tell that if Sage as a body he would be crying.

She honestly didn’t know what to say as she didn’t know what was wrong so she could only let him calm down before asking what the problem is. After a long time Sage finally quiet down. Alice gathered up her courage and asked “Sage what is wrong?”

Sage let out a deep sigh and said “Don’t worry too much about it Alice it was just me being very short sighted.”

Alice was still worried and kept asking “Come Sage you can tell me, I’m your dungeon fairy it is my job to help you.

Sage hesitated for a bit and let out another big sigh “It’s fairly simple really, I have been training these monsters to make them stronger but training takes time. Yet they are very weak that they die very quickly. I notice this because the fighting power of the monster in the first two room of the right tunnel was so much weaker than the last 2 room. Why? Because adventurers have being coming in daily to kill them so those monsters never had much training before they died where the monsters in the later rooms live longer so they are stronger. However now with this rank A team all of the monster I worked hard to train are killed instantly....”

Sage took a deep breath and let out another sigh “Look like I was focused on the wrong thing and ended up wasting so much time.”

“Aww Sage, you are already so far ahead of what normal dungeons would have so don’t be so down on yourself.” Alice tried her best to cheer him up. “Look the team is almost to the boss room. I’m sure your dungeon boss will give them a big surprise!”

Sage stayed silence for a long time and finally said “Thank you Alice.”

*Outside the boss room*

“Alright we map out every part of this dungeon, there is only the boss room remaining.” Alex said to his team. “This dungeon has been very special so far so be prepared. Xanthe will engage the dungeon boss and everyone be ready to jump in to support if needed. Are you all ready?”

“Ready!” The other four replied in unison.

Then Alex walked forward and pushed over the door…

Edited by: mossclaw64