There was a bright flash of light, a sudden boom, then the sound of 9 people and 3 bodies crashing to the floor in the middle of Caelyn Adventurer’s Guild. Not one of the still living people was unharmed, in fact, some of them would need medical attention fast or likely die from blood loss.

Rael, the leader of the party, signaled to Mordred the Sorcerer, Pavol the Sage and Erem the Warpriest to follow him. All of them had only minor injuries, and they all knew this was too important to report before a tragedy happened.

A few minutes later the quartet had been seated inside the office of Guildmaster Saol. An attendant was busy bandaging a rather nasty, though not lethal, wound on Mordred’s shoulder. “So what happened down there, Rael? Your team are pro’s you don’t use an Emergency Recall unless it’s necessary. So this had better be good”

Rael emptied the cup of wine he had been given. “It started straightforward enough. As the Scout Team said we found a field of stones growing out of the ground. Though they are now the size of small fences and still growing” he took another swing of his cup. It had been refilled as he spoke.

“We saw neither hide nor hair of the Sphinx though. If it was the Core as reported it was probably inside. As we entered we quickly realized we had a rare dungeon type on our hands too. Some form of Maze biome” He continued, before he was interrupted by the attendant. “Hedge Maze?” he asked. Saol shot the boy an angry look, but Rael didn’t seem to mind answering.

“No, this was the real deal, stone all of it, proper bedrock at that. No way we would get through that without some serious cost. Anyway, I am getting sidetracked. We had made it about a hundred meters in when the dungeon first showed signs to have taken notice of us. Sent a bunch of Dungeon Worms to attack us. They came from all directions at once, so it was a coordinated assault by the Core”

Erem intersected here “I was on lookout with my Truesense spell, and I could feel them coming. So I killed the lot of them with my Blade Barrier. Then we continued on, since our orders were to capture the core. That’s when all hell broke loose”

Saol leaned forward onto his desk. “Well what happened?” this time it was Pavol that answered. “A Biome Influence. Turns out our Core isn’t stupid. The first thing it did after the last party departed was to expand its dungeon. With a 2nd floor and the damn thing lucked into a Full Influence”

Saol went pale. “F-full Influence? Is this some kind of bad joke?” Mordred answered this time. his voice strained. “I wish it was. The entire floor shook and the gray bedrock walls turned into black obsidian right before our eyes. We knew we had a chance of encountering Variants now. At least one of the base creatures would have mutated. I figured we would run into Cave Rats or maybe Drill Worms. The Core had other plans for us, though”

The door to the office opened and a medical attendant entered with a report card. “Lahman and Randel were clean, and we succesfully removed the implantation from the remains of Sybl. All three will be resurrected in an hour” Saol creased his brow. “Implantation?” The nurse looked at him. “Black Ooze Implantation” she answered before she hurried back out. She had preparations to do. Saol’s face turned a pale shade of green.

“Not only Hunter Slimes or Black Oozes, if you prefer the correct name, rather than the nickname. Guildmaster, it was a Full Depths Influence, the Dungeon Worms became Depths Worms and what killed Lahman, Randel and Sybl was a swarm of Typhoid Rats”

Saol shook his head, “The Depths, that’s a rare biome indeed, even rarer than Mazes” he grumbled to himself even as Pavol piped in. “Um, it has long been speculated that one requirement of a Depths biome is a Maze Biome, I guess this confirms it?” the others looked at him with annoyed expressions. He hid behind his book.

Saol took a deep breath, then emptied his cup of wine. “Very well, so what happened after the shift?” Erem again took the lead. “We had barely taken another 50 paces when I sensed something at the edge of the Truesense. something moving towards us and fast. It was a Black Ooze, a single one, stretched itself across the entire hallway and were charging at us. The problem was, we didn’t know what it was right away”

“Miriam cast a fireball at it” Pavol piped in once more. Saol facepalmed. “Precisely, no sooner did the fireball hit, before we now had to deal with two of them. Realizing it had Magic Mitosis and was jet black it narrowed the possibility of what it was to one, Black Ooze” Rael now continued. Before pausing briefly to take another swing at his cup, only to once more find it empty.

“I ordered a retreat. We were not equipped to deal with a pair of hunter Oozes. Especially since Erem had sensed more than one presence heading our way. Our next guest was no surprise in its arrival, though, as it came out of the wall from the T section behind us. Maw wide open and intent on swallowing the lot of us whole. Since magic were useless against the Oozes, the lot of our magic users turned their attention to the worm and bombarded it. Driving it off to the side at the last moment. None of us were even considering Cooperation was in play”

“It was a ploy” Saol reasoned. “Got it in one. No sooner had we started past the hole the Worm disappeared out of. Before we were set upon by a swarm of Typhoid Rats, Lahman, Randel and Sybl were down before we even realized what had hit us. Ward of Life are worth about as much as a fart when you are hit with that much instant death. I credit Temir with identifying them almost immediately, though. The fact he survived his encounter with them in that sewer dungeon saved our asses. Because my first instinct were just to try to fight them off” he leaned over to grab the wine bottle, signaling for Erem to wrap it up.

“Rael didn’t even need to call for a full retreat, we couldn’t stay, and we all knew it. We all took off towards the entrance, only I sensed more Oozes in front of us. I warned Rael, and he called for an Emergency Recall. And the rest you know”

Saol took a deep breath. “Good work, you and your team did remarkably well, all things considered. The guild will cover the expenses for the Resurrection of your teammates. The question is, what do we do now? No doubt the Depths biome was made in response to the Core feeling threatened by young Indella. Since she tried to tame the core on her own”

Saol paused as he reached for his pipe and took a deep draw.“Which also thwarted our capture attempt because of superb fortune on the Cores side. Not to mention its danger level has just skyrocketed since the first floor is now home to 3 Variants all capable of instant death. One of which is a Hunter-killer and all of that is sitting on top of a Depths biome. A biome that is unexplored, unconquered and containing monsters that has not been seen in nearly 500 years if the records are correct. Rael, tell Aleana to send a message to Slyvanport when you leave. We will need access to the Records if we want to figure out what might lurk down there”

Rael nodded. The Elves surely had information they could use. Not to mention their leader who had the skill Akashic Records had recorded a lot of the world’s goings-on which would surely be of use now.

“As for the dungeon I am classifying it as S Rank Raid Tier. Nothing less than an Expanded Party of S rank Adventurers are to go anywhere near that place. Have I made myself clear?” Rael stared at Saol, who spoke again before Rael could respond.

“I am fully aware you wish to redeem your tainted honor and you’ll have that chance. I promote you and your team to S rank because of remarkable circumstance and I now offer you a Special Quest. The subjugation of the Maze Dungeon and the capture of its Sphinx Core. You may undertake the raid as soon as we have more information on what to expect, Dismissed”

Rael nodded slowly and the 4 men left the room to inform the rest of the party and to prepare to take part in the Resurrection Ceremony.