The group of six leisurely entered the dungeon entrance but quickly slowed to a stop.

“Damn. This is the first floor safe room?” exclaimed Peter.

“You’re right. It’s odd to have such an extravagant room this early,” mused Franc.

Lyra interjected, “However, dungeons do update earlier floors as they grow older.”

“Not to grand entrance halls with realistic carvings of monsters they don’t,” growled Duzzig as he firmly grasped his axe handle.

“A glowing floor and glowing walls, along with vines made out of light aren’t exactly normal either,” said Teri while waving her hand at the room.

Charles piped up, “I don’t know what the problem is. The monster carvings are cool.”

“Okay, everyone,” Franc ordered. “It’s certainly unusual, but it’s not something we haven’t seen before. Charles, analyze the pictures on the pillars, they might tell us about the monster types in the dungeon. Lyra, check out the glowing walls, glowing floor, and glowing pillars. If they’re magic tell me what kind. Peter, map out the room.Teri and Duzzig come with me as we check out that desk with a treasure chest on it, and what is obviously not a set of stairs.”

Charles ran to the pillars with vigor and intensely stared at them. Lyra sighed as she levitated to the ceiling and studied the magic vines. Peter had already started mapping out the room before Franc had ordered him to.

As Franc, Teri, and Duzzig reached the end of safe room, they noticed the sign above the desk.

“Loot collection?” said Teri in amazement. “Are we sure this isn’t an old dungeon? If it’s a new one, it’s certainly putting the cart before the horse.”

However, she was already looking over the treasure chest and mana signature reader making sure not to touch them.

“Still, it will certainly be useful,” grunted Duzzig. “Lazy adventurers hate to pick up loot and carry it, even if the dungeon is a only a couple of floors.”

“It’ll be good if we ever come back here, but for now we ignore it. We need to identify what each monster drops and not have it all placed in that treasure chest,” lectured Franc. “Although, you can open the treasure chest if you want Teri, it shouldn’t register the loot collection.”

With the leader’s permission, the lid of the treasure chest sprang open immediately. What greeted her was the same blackness as the dungeon entrance. She placed her hand inside but only felt the inside of a treasure chest.

Teri sighed and addressed Franc, “It looks like a portal similar to the dungeon entrance, but when I put my hand inside I can feel the edges of the treasure chest. Without activating loot collection, I can’t tell more about it. However, we should have Lyra check it for magic.”

“If Lyra can’t find too much more about it, then we’ll activate the loot collection system on our timed run through of the dungeon,” said Franc. “Now, rather than stairs, we obviously have a teleportation formation. Who wants to test it out?”

“Me!” screamed Lyra as she zoomed over to them from the ceiling.

“You’re supposed to be studying the lights, Lyra. But, I suppose teleportations are also your jurisdiction, so go ahead,” sighed Franc.

Franc, Teri, and Duzzig watched as Lyra entered the teleportation alcove. As she did a window appeared in front of her.

“Is this what it would look like if we could see each other’s Status Windows?” wondered Duzzig aloud.

“Now, that, I’m certain, is something we’ve never seen before,” said Franc. “What does it say Lyra?”

“It’s asking me to choose which floor I want, and there’s only one option: G- Deep Cave,” she answered.

“That likely means this dungeon already has the ability to start at floors we’ve already cleared,” mused Franc. “In terms of design it seems like an old and long dungeon, but based on what the Prime Magus said, which is likely based on whatever that bird told her, and the title of the floor it should be a new one. If that title is true, the dungeon may not be as difficult as the safe room and design suggests.”

“Aren’t you being a little fast in your difficulty estimate, Franc?” asked Lyra as she stepped back out of the alcove.

“You’re probably right, but why waste a floor on monsters that most villagers should be able to kill with a modicum of effort? It’s not like I know how dungeons function, but all dungeons in the Empire and the former Kingdom have had a team reach the core room at some point. That should mean there’s always an end to a dungeon. If there’s an end, there should be a limited number of floors, so why waste a floor dedicated to G- rank monsters unless that’s all the dungeon has?”

“Franc, I know you like to figure out how dungeons work, but is now really the time?” asked Teri.

“Sorry,” apologized Franc. “Okay, Lyra, check out the treasure chest then get back to the lights. Teri and Duzzig, let’s see if we can help the others in anyway we can.”

A couple of hours later, Peter, Charles, and Lyra came back with their reports.

Peter started, “I mapped the safe room. It’s very similar to the entrance hall of a castle but less ornate and more magical.”

“Thanks Peter. Your forte will come when we enter the main dungeon,” said Franc.

Charles was next, “Based on the carvings we’ll see spiders, jellies, slimes, ferns, mushrooms, and moss. The only one I specifically identified was the Ankle biter, and I could only do that because of the very obvious mouth on a generic looking mushroom. I’d hesitate to even say if the ferns or moss will be monsters. I would only say the spiders are monster variants based on their size.

“Carvings of the same type are exact replicas of each other except for the spiders. There are different variations of spider carvings, so we’ll probably encounter multiple spider types. I estimate at least five, but I can’t say that with confidence.”

“Does the fact that the first floor is a G- rank floor give you any more confidence in what types of monsters we’ll face?” asked Franc.

“Yes and no. I could guess the common G- rank monsters for each type, but dungeons are known to have uncommon or rare monster variants.”

“Thanks Charles. Those don’t sound too difficult, but we need to be careful of the spider venom.”

Lyra finished the reports off with fire in her eyes, “The vines on the ceiling are extremely detailed reconstructions of the basic light spell. I say extremely detailed because I cannot understand how the dungeon made those. They look and act exactly like living vines, but are made up of light attribute magic. Light attribute mages who’ve reached a wall in their development and studies will want to come to this dungeon simply for those vines.”

“No way they can be that amazing, it’s only the first floor of the dungeon,” doubted Duzzig.

“I would normally agree with you Duzzig, but the glowing walls, glowing floor, and glowing pillars are just as amazing. The glow is a simpler reconstruction of the light spell compared to the vines, but the color and patterns that it cycles through aren’t light at all. They’re different mana attributes that have been infused into the light spell. So far there have mainly been basic attributes, but the one right now is metal attribute. Also, no repeats so far. I almost want to wait and see if previously unknown attributes show up.”

Lyra was nearly bouncing around the walls at the prospects the magic lights in the safe room presented. The rest of the party could only sigh internally and hope she calmed down before the dangerous part of their job actually began.

“How about the teleportation formation and the inside of the treasure chest?” questioned Franc.

“The teleportation formation seems like a formation that the space mage we brought with us would make, but after seeing the lights and the window that appeared I think I’m missing something. And I can only shrug my shoulders at the treasure chest. I know it contains space magic but that’s all. I may like space magic, but I’m not very good at it. We may need to bring that space mage in here if he’s willing,” said Lyra as she shook her head.

“I doubt that man would ever go into a dungeon,” joked Peter.

“Hahhah! Right you are, boy!” Duzzig chuckled jovially. “He shivers at the simple prospect of danger in the same way you shiver at real danger.”

“Yeah, yeah, everyone’s a boy or girl to you, Duzzig, even Lyra whose hundreds of years older than you.”

Peter’s body started to shiver.

“Okay guys, we can continue having fun after we’re outside and making camp.” interrupted Franc.

“We’re not going to finish the first floor?” asked Teri obviously disappointed.

“Tomorrow. It shouldn’t be dark yet, but based on this safe room, a full exploration of the first floor should take us longer than normal. As such, we wouldn’t complete it until deep into the night. And as I always say we need a good night’s rest to do well in the dungeon,” answered Franc.

The party gathered their belongings and exited the dungeon.

Waiting for them outside the dungeon was the Prime Magus, “Done already?” she asked.

Franc responded, “No, I’m afraid not Prime Magus. We only recorded notes on the first floor safe room. It was unusual for such an early floor and took us longer than normal, but the magic present might interest you. However, there were two space related items: a teleportation formation and a treasure chest with some sort of space magic inside that we were unable to report on in detail. If Magus Timothy would be willing, we’d love to have him examine them.”

“I already planned on a trek through the dungeon. I’ll have Timothy enter with me then, no matter how much he blubbers,” joked the Prime Magus. “But, I’ll let you finish your jobs first. Information is power after all.”

The Prime Magus said goodbye and walked back to her tent. The party of six walked to their designated area, set up camp, layed out their plans for tomorrow, and spent time in leisure.

As the sun went down, the scouts returned for their daily reports. They reported their finding to their direct superiors, who in turn prepared for the daily meeting.

The party went over and ate with the returning scouts and discussed what they had seen. There was a severe lack of monsters in the area surrounding the dungeon, and on the outskirts of their scouting range was a partially destroyed settlement. Besides being destroyed, the settlement seemed to have been in use recently. The scouts were sure that was where they would focus their scouting tomorrow, and each was hopeful they would get the assignment. The group of six waved goodnight to the scouts and returned to their tents.

Dungeon Reconnaissance woke up early the next morning and entered the dungeon. They reached the teleportation formation, and all entered the alcove. The alcove seemed like it would fit between ten and fifteen individuals.

“Ready?” asked Franc.

“Yes,” respond the rest of the party.

Franc selected the G- Deep Cave option on the window, and the group disappeared.

✦✦✦✦✦

What greeted them was an unusually bright and normally damp cave.

“The deep cave part didn’t seem to be a lie,” muttered Peter as he started to draw the map.

“Right, get into standard formation. We can’t be sure only G- rank monsters are present,” ordered Franc.

“Before that! More lights!” Lyra said excitedly as she examined the walls and ceiling.

France sighed, “Get in standard formation around Lyra and let her look at the lights.”

The group formed around Lyra and waited for her to finish her inspection.

“They’re less complicated compared to the ivy in the safe room, and I can understand a little more. These seem to be a simple shape change from a ball of light to strings and ribbons of light. I may be able to use this dungeon as an example to those sticks in the mud that they need to actually use their imagination not simply have a perfect image,” Lyra muttered to herself loud enough for the others to hear.

“You done, Lyra?” Franc asked.

“Huh? ….Oh, yeah! Sorry, Franc. Studying the vines in the safe room would be better, so let’s move on.”

“Good. We’re already in formation, so let’s go.”

Peter stood in the front separated a fair distance from the group. Duzzig stood at the front of the main group with Franc only slightly behind him. Teri and Lyra stood in the center. Charles and his black panther, Ciel, stood at the back.

They walked down the corridor and the blank walls started to be covered in moss, ferns, and mushrooms. Charles at the back used his knife and spade to pry off and dig up the surrounding plants and fungi, and placed them into the bag at his waist. He made sure to collected any various life stages he noticed. After appraising what he gathered, he noted them down in his notebook.

While Charles was gathering and taking notes, something dropped onto Franc’s head. Before it touched him, his hand snapped it out of the air and brought it before his eyes. A fist sized spider with white tipped legs, a brownish black body, and two white stripes down its abdomen struggled in his hand.

After a quick look Franc tossed the spider to Charles, “Hey Charles, catch.”

Charles snatched the spider out of the air, his eyes not leaving his notes. As he finished, he looked up at the spider.

“Hmm, a web spider. Unusual for them to be G- rank, but it’s smaller and has lower skill levels. I haven’t seen the color patterns before,” he mused.

With a nod, Charles channeled his mana into the spider, and it turned into a small ball that he put into his bag with the previously gathered materials.

They reached a room with five additional corridors, and Peter was in the middle of the room staring down at something.

“Whatcha looking at Peter?” asked Teri.

“It’s a trap of some kind. Magical in nature. I didn’t disarm it because I wanted Lyra to take a look,” answered Peter.

“Let me see,” said Lyra as she walked over.

She got on her hands and knees, and observed the trap. What seemed like cave floor shimmered and distorted over a square meter. After about a minute of staring, she channeled mana into an obvious protrusion and the image disappeared revealing a hole with wood spikes at the bottom.

“Well, since you deactivated the trap, I can only assume you got something,” said Peter sarcastically.

“Shut up Peter,” glared Lyra. “And, yes, it was a basic illusion spell. However, it almost seemed intentionally distorted.”

Charles interjected as he turned an ankle biter, trying to bite his hand, into a small ball, “Maybe the dungeon had to do it to make the floor G- rank worthy? The creatures and monsters seem to fit the ranking pretty well.”

“We’ll leave the speculation for later. For now we’ve identified one trap and how to disarm it. After Charles finishes his sampling, we’ll head down the left path,” ordered Franc.

Duzzig sighed, “Now that this floor actually seems to conform with its title, I won’t be getting a good fight will I?”

“You knew the possibility of that was low from the start, Duzzig,” replied Lyra.

“I know. That doesn’t mean I can’t be disappointed by it all the same.”

The five of them joked with one another while Charles explored the room. Ankle biters nipped at his heels, constriction ferns attempted to wrap him with leaves, and moving moss tried to release spores. Before they could do anything, he either killed them or turned them into little balls.

“How’s the loot looking so far, Charles?” asked Franc.

“Pretty normal. Mana hearts, an associated item, usually edible, and a slightly rare item here and there. Of course, only one item for the G tier monsters makes obtaining loot more tedious,” shrugged Charles. “The Empire’s stone coins are also dropping as usual for dungeons.”

“But, how-”

“I don’t know either, Franc, so don’t ask.”

With a shrug of his shoulders, Franc led them down the left corridor, and they reached a room filled with ferns.

“Are these the same type of ferns that were in the last room, Charles?” asked Franc.

“Yes, a mix of the normal ferns and the constriction ferns,” answered Charles observing the room, “Low rank adventurers would have a hard time distinguishing them, but not fighting them. Although, if they rushed into the room blindly, they might be overcome by sheer numbers.”

“Normally we’d just destroy the room in one go, but we need to at least get a feel for those who can’t.”

The party headed into the room in formation. Peter had shifted to the center of the formation along with Teri and Lyra. They slowly walked through the room with fern leaves reaching for them, but their two long range fighters and Peter quickly killed the ferns after the leaves barely twitched.

They reached the center of the room as Duzzig stopped them, “Another one of those illusion pitfalls from the previous room. Lyra disarmed the last one, should we test and trigger this one?”

“Agreed, go ahead Duzzig,” Franc ordered.

Duzzig gave their leader a pointed look, but did what he was told as he knew he was most fit for the task. As he knowingly jumped into the one meter deep hole, his armored feet smashed the wood spikes apart.

“Could be dangerous for unarmored or lightly armored individuals, but even then unless a vital point is hit, it shouldn’t cause too much damage,” Duzzig grunted as he climbed out of the hole.

“Alright then, thanks Duzzig. Let’s explore the room and see if there’s anything else,” Franc ordered.

They noticed the opening of a corridor and headed in that direction and as they reached it, Franc stopped them, “I see something glowing on the ground up ahead. Peter and Lyra should check it out.”

“Why me?” Lyra complained.

“Because your our mage, and this dungeon seems magic oriented so far,” Franc growled.

“Right,” Lyra sighed.

The two of them headed to the light on the ground and spent quite a while examining what they found. Franc eventually got irritated and walked over to the two of them to see what was taking so long.

“You didn’t take this long examining the illusion pitfall, what’s different this time?” Franc asked with more steel than normal in his voice.

Lyra gave Franc an exasperated look, “I told you how complicated those light vines are. It shouldn’t be a surprise that other magic in this dungeon is complicated.”

“But it’s only a G- rank floor? They can’t be that complicated.”

“Actually that’s more than enough reason. How many spells do you know of that only do G- rank damage? Maybe the lifestyle spells and introductory spells, but most spells would obliterate these constriction ferns.”

“....You’re right, Lyra, sorry I complained. You know more about magic than I do.”

“It’s okay. You’re our leader and need to be worried when things aren’t going like normal.”

“This heart to heart is really getting to me,” Teri mocked, “but what have you actually found out about it?”

“I know it’s an activation formation, and I can deactivate it in the same way I did the illusion pitfall. Beyond that I can’t tell. It’s quite frustrating,” Lyra answered.

“Hey, Lyra,” interrupted Duzzig. “Looked up lately?”

“What….,” Lyra started to ask as she looked upward.

With her face beet red, she hid it in her hands, “I’m an idiot.”

The rest of the group looked upward with her, and they all gave nervous chuckles except for Duzzig.

“Don’t feel too embarrassed, Lyra,” Charles consoled her. “No one but Duzzig thought of it. We’re simply not used to ceiling traps on the first floor.”

“Peter should be the one embarrassed. The boy has that damn unique skill of his and didn’t catch it,” Duzzig snorted.

Peter gritted his teeth, “It’s barely higher than the normal sense I get in any dungeon. It must not be that dangerous of a trap.”

“Okay, that’s enough. As much as we tried not to, we let our guard down a little. It’s the kind of complacency that wouldn’t normally endanger us in most dungeon first floors, but it could prove a little more dangerous here,” Franc lectured. “Lyra, go check the formation on the ceiling. We’ll wait.”

Lyra levitated to the ceiling and came back down after only a minute.

“I got less out of that than I thought. Based on the positioning, it’s probably connected to the activation formation, but I can’t detect it at all,” lamented Lyra. “The only other thing was the formation on the ceiling is earth based.”

“It looks like I’ll have to brute force the trap then,” Duzzig grunted as he shifted his armor. “Make sure to save my ass in case it’s actually dangerous.”

Duzzig stepped on the activation formation and observed an earth spike falling towards him. He shifted his body and let it hit his shoulder where it shattered.

“That could brain an idiot,” Duzzig laughed. “You sure we have to report what every trap does?”

Franc sighed, “Yes, we do Duzzig.”

“Okay, Okay. At least we know what it does now.”

“Right. Is the trap deactivated now or will it retrigger, Lyra?”

“It’s deactivated. No retrigger,” Lyra responded.

“Good. Let’s finish exploring the room,” Franc ordered.

The only other feature they found was a small puddle near the wall closer to where they entered the room. It contained nothing besides water, so Charles took some instruments out of his bag and tested the water. He found nothing wrong with it, so the group drank happily. They then moved onto the only new corridor and the next room. They arrived in a room similar to the last, except this one was filled with moss.