Hello everyone and all the new readers! It has been a pretty amazing day. About 24 hrs ago I posted the last chapter and broke into rank 5 on the weekly view then I went to sleep woke up and just watched the views soar up through out the day! The dream of world domination is at hand! err I mean monthly ranking ya monthly ranking...

As I said before feel free to sent me art of this novel and I'll post them. Currently hording all of them, might make a little art book or something someday. Anyways here is a fan art of what the artist thought the scene of when Sage meet the crystal was like.

Fan art by (F)art, Silent but deadly.

The day went by quickly and Sigrid and Alice returned to their inn before it got dark. However when they walked into the inn a voice called out to them, “Sigrid! Alice!” This caused them to turn around to see John walking towards him.

Sigrid was startled for a second before letting out a smile and saying, “Hello John, how did your promotion exam go?”

John walked up to them, he looked different somehow, a lot more mature. “It went well, was tricked by the old man but it worked out for the better. I finished shortly after the mock battles, I wanted to come and congratulate you but you were already gone.”

Sigrid suddenly realized something and felt bad for leaving John behind like that but it had been crucial that they reported back to Sage back then. “I’m sorry, was just too excited about the dungeon so I rushed hoping that I could join.”

Alice suddenly flew between them and smiled, “Sorry to break up this reunion but maybe we should go inside the inn and talk over dinner instead?”

Both Sigrid and John realized they were blocking the entrance and starting to attract too much attention. They let out an embarrassed smile and entered the Treasure Inn. The group quickly found a table on the side and ordered some food.

After they settled down and food came, Sigrid took a closer look at John and noticed something was off. She noticed his change when they just met outside but now she realized there was something more. Sigrid focused closely on John and was suddenly startled by the mana she felt from John, “You already reached rank E!”

John was also startled by Sigrid’s little outburst, he quickly recovered himself and smiled “Well I thought I was going on an promotion exam for rank F but that old man tricked me. I can’t tell you the details but I can say I went through hell and back in that week. Still I thought I would finally be a match for you but it seems I’m still far away.”

Both Alice and Sigrid didn’t speak for a while as they processed this information. Finally Alice regained her senses and asked “Old man?”

“Oh, I meant the guild master. He pays a lot of attention to us new adventurers so we are used to calling him old man. It was him who sent me to take that rank F exam, it turned out to be a lot more than what he originally told me.” John shivered, “But in the end I’m glad about what he did.”

Sigrid finally regained her senses and smiled “That’s amazing John, congratulation! Now we are the same rank and can go explore the dungeon together.”

John shook his head and let out a bitter smile, “I’m afraid that won’t be possible right now.”

Sigrid looked confused and asked, “Why?”

John took a drink from his cup, “It is because the dungeon is currently too weak right now. A rank E is already the limit of what the Adventurers Guild allows to enter the dungeon, they don’t allow two to be in the same party as it would be too easy. Since you signed up to enter you will probably be paired up with a few new rank G adventurers to even out the strength of your party.”

“I’ll be paired up with other people?” Sigrid was surprised at the news, “Don’t adventurers get to form their own teams?

“Yes, normally that is the case but this dungeon is not exactly normal.” John helplessly shook his head, “Everyone wants to go into this dungeon but it’s simply too young to sustain everyone so there is a limitation placed to allow as much people to explore the dungeon as possible. If you sign up with your own team then it is fine but since you signed up by yourself you are going to have to take whoever the guild gives you.”

“I see…” Sigrid thought about this and decided to just see what happens. Afterall her mission was to simply gather information so who she was with is hardly important, it’s not like she needs anything from the dungeon.

They talked until they finished dinner and parted ways. It seems the guild master had some special task prepared for John and he would need to go do them. John said he would be done with them after a week so they agreed to meet up for dinner again once he completed them.

As they walked back in, Alice noticed someone sitting in the corner of the Inn. This person looked like he was in his early 20s and gave off a very calm and elegant feel. She noticed he was looking at Sigrid and casually looked over. It wasn’t really anything strange as Sigrid attracted everyone’s attention but as she looked over their gaze locked for a moment.

“...” Alice quickly broke the gaze and no longer bothered with him.

The person sitting in the corner took a drink and his smile grew wider. “Interesting, this might be easier than planned…”

The night went by quietly and it was now dawn. Sigrid and Alice got up and had breakfast at the Treasure Inn before heading over to the Adventurers’ Guild. When they arrived at the front desk, Penny greeted them, “Hello Sigrid and Alice, are you both ready for your trip to The Sage Dungeon today?”

“Yes, we are Penny.” Sigrid smiled back at Penny.

“Great!” Penny quickly flipped through some papers, “We have assigned you 4 rank G adventurers to form a party with you. I’m sorry for the trouble but in order to maximize gain from the dungeon we pair up higher rank adventurers with lower ranked ones to even out the strength of the party.”

Sigrid pondered for a bit and said, “What if I had my own party when I sign up? What happens then?”

“That would depend on your party. If it is too powerful then we can’t allow you to enter the dungeon until the dungeon is strong enough. If your party is at the correct strength then you will be assigned a time slow but this is usually a longer wait.” Penny sorted the papers in her hands. “Please wait over there for the rest of your party to show up. This group of 4 came together but requested for a stronger adventurer to guide them as it is their first time. We thought it would be a good chance for you since you guys were all in the same basic training.”

“Oh, really?” Sigrid was curious to who they were as she didn’t really talk to anyone during basic training. “Thank you Penny, I’ll be waiting then.”

Soon the group of 4 adventurers arrived and they were quickly introduced to Sigrid. They were all at shock that Sigrid was the one who would be leading them but having seen the fight between Sigrid and the vice guild master they were very happy.

“Hello Sigrid, my name is George!” The person that seemed to be the leader of the group walked up to Sigrid with his hand stretched out. Alice’s gaze locked on to him for a second recognizing him as the young man who stared at Sigrid the night before in the inn.

Sigrid shook his hand and smiled, “Nice to meet you all, are you all ready to head out?”

George let out a smile and said, “Yes, we can’t wait to enter the dungeon as well.”

They quickly left the guild and reached the entrance of the dungeon. After they showed their pass to the guard at the entrance they went inside.

“What do you guys specialize in? I would like to know how each of you fight so I can act accordingly.” Sigrid’s tone became very serious and she looked at the group.

George let out a bright smile and said, “Me, James, and Greg are all melee fighters while Jimmy is an archer. We all have some experience in close combat but none of us knows how to use magic.”

Sigrid thought for a moment and nodded, “I’ll let you guys handle the monsters on the first floor. I don’t need any of the drops so they are yours to keep.”

George shook his head, “This won’t do! We can’t just have you leave empty handed.”

Sigrid felt helpless but Alice suddenly popped out and said, “How about this? If you guys defeat the monster, the drop is yours but if Sigrid had to step in then the drop is ours. Sounds good?”

George was startled by the sudden suggestion but quickly recovered himself, “That is an excellent idea, what do you think Sigrid?”

Sigrid could only nod her head, she knew Alice’s idea was for the best or else it would seem too weird that she would work for nothing. They began their way through the dungeon and the group didn’t have too much trouble making their way through first floor. While there were a few close calls none of them really required Sigrid to act.

After being inside for over an hour Sigrid muttered to Alice, “Alice I never realized this but did you notice how well placed all the rooms and monsters are?”

Alice was startled and asked with a confused look, “What do you mean?”

Sigrid pondered for a bit, “Well you won’t think about it if you just walk through it but after being with this party for over an hour it became really obvious. All the rooms and mobs are designed in a way that rank G adventurers would be challenged but rarely in danger. A lot of the monster placements would give them a decent fight but there is always a safe place to retreat to and you would rarely run into too many monsters at once. It’s almost as if this is a training camp rather than a dungeon.”

Alice remained silent for a long time and finally nodded.

They continued for another hour before making it to the second floor. Once they reached there they decided to take a break before moving further into the dungeon. Sigrid recalled the past 2 hours of fighting and after coming up with a plan for the 2nd floor she walked up to the rest of them. “Ok, from what I’ve seen from you guys on the first floor, you guys should be safe as long as you guys don’t do anything risky. However this is the second floor and while I’m here, I advise you to be careful as there might be danger that can kill you before I can act. But rest assured that I’ll do my best to keep you all alive.”

The rest of the group all nodded back at Sigrid and they prepared to head out. The second floor monsters provided a bit more challenge than the first floor with the increase of the elite goblins and elite kobolds. Against one of them the group did fine but against one that is leading a small group they were hard pressured. Finally one encounter that had two elite goblins required Sigrid to act. She felt bad attacking the goblins because she knew that they wouldn’t hurt her or Alice due to their connection with Sage but to keep this lie going she had to be merciless.

“Thank you for saving us Sigrid…. if you weren’t here…. we would have been in big trouble....” George was breathing hard as he walked over to thank Sigrid. Sigrid only smiled and lead them to a safe spot to rest while she kept “watch” but in reality all the monsters that would have came over turned around and left once they saw her.

Steadily they made their way through the second floor, the route they walked was one planned by Sage the night before. The idea was to get to the entrance to the 3rd floor as quickly as possible but also make it so that it doesn’t feel like they walked into a boss room. The entrance to the next floor is always in the boss room of the floor above it. Before the next floor is open the boss would be in that room so many time weak adventurer would never consider going inside to check. Now if Sigrid was by herself it wouldn’t have been an issue but after finding out she was going to be assigned a party then this would be an issue.

Alice made a quick trip back to the dungeon to inform Sage of the change and Sage quickly modified the previous second floor boss room and some passageways so that it would feel like they just entered another room but in reality entered the old second floor boss room. This way there wouldn’t be an issue of the party being too scared to check the boss room.

They spent over three hours inside the second floor before they finally made it to the boss room of the second floor. Of course no one but Alice and Sigrid knew so they entered it only to find nothing but stairs going down.

George had a confused expression on his face, “What is this? Stairs going down but where does it lead?”

Sigrid pretended to be excited and shouted, “Could this be the stairs to the third floor! I can sense denser mana down there.”

The rest of the group were shocked as well as they weren’t expecting this. “But isn’t the path down to the third floor supposed to be in the boss room?” George couldn’t understand why the stairs were there.

“I’m not sure but only one way to find out, stay behind me.” Sigrid waved her arm and headed towards the stairs. Everyone else looked at each other and followed behind her. Soon they descended down the stairs and felt the mana density increase.

“These really are the stairs to the third floor…”

Edited by: Nova