Looking around for a suitable place to start the construction Brian soon decided on a spot not too far from where they first came upon the edge of the crater. It was halfway between the start of one of those bridges spanning into the crater and what appeared to be a ramp leading down to the crater floor.

He decided not to start their outpost next to the river, as they could always divert some of it to them, and there didn’t seem to be a convenient access point to the valley below close to the river.

Having decided on a location he sat down in the center of what was going to be their new outpost and touched the ground with both of his palms. Expelling his mana into the ground he kept a tight leash on it keeping a firm picture of the shape of the outpost he wanted in his mind. Grabbing the edges of the area that would become their home for the foreseeable future in his mind, he started to exert his will.

***

Fabian looked on with interest as the elder of the conglomerate mages sat down and started to concentrate. It took a while but soon he could feel the ground trembling and several squares started to sink down, with the earth around them compacting, forming specific shapes that were perfectly suited for placing wooden support beams within them. At the same time around the edge of the area a small earthen rampart was raising out of the floor. Once Brian seemed to finish a 1.5m high wall surrounded hard packed dirt, with several foundations of buildings around the square ready to have the finishing touches put on them. They still looked more like skeletons of buildings, but once he and his frends worked the wood still missing on it they would form sturdy but simple buildings suited for the wilderness they currently found themselves within.

Once finished Brian exhaustedly slumped over, visibly spent from the large mana expenditure of constructing Now it was up to Fabian to finish what their employer started. The exhaustion was one of the reason he would never choose to become a mage, even with the astonishing feat that just one person accomplished within minutes what a whole team would take months.

Brian would either have to descend relatively deep into a dungeon or spend months meditating to restore the mana he just spent through active mana absorption. As a physical user himself he could keep most of his mana within himself only using a little to actively boost certain movements. He preferred it this way even if physical users could never be as powerful as a mage what concerned raw power.

Turning away from what he just witnessed he made his way to the closest trees around their future outpost and took out his sturdy axe to start cutting the wood they would need to finish what Brian started.

***

A week had passed and the outpost stood ready to receive the future influx of expected reinforcement. It currently had a communal hall, with attached barracks for up to around 50 people. Next to it a small stable and smithy was constructed to help with further expansion of the outpost. They still relied on foraging for food for now, though with the arrival of the expedition that the conglomerate would send, this would hopefully change, as several farmers were supposed to be part of that as well.

With the completion of the outpost excited chatter could be heard from within the communal hall where the discovering team were having an animated discussion.

“I’m telling you, it’s too dangerous! You don’t know what this dungeon could hold! Just look at what it built on the surface! Have you ever seen anything like it? Who knows what other surprises wait once you get deeper inside!” Brian tried to cull the excitement of Horace and his team. They insisted with the completion of the outpost, their duty was fulfilled and were intent on exploring the dungeon below them.

“No matter what it built on the surface! It’s still a young dungeon. And even if it’s deeper we don’t plan to go anywhere near deeper than the 5th floor. You know perfectly well that above the fifth floor the worst the dungeon could throw at us is some strengthened beasts and traps”

“You say that as if it were harmless. Do you know how many adventurers found their demise because the thought a simple beast could not hurt them?”

“Its not our first time diving a dungeon. We know what we are doing, we will make sure to take a team of at least 5 people, leaving you enough to fight off any beast that finds its way to the outpost!”

“Ha you think I’m worried about a beast attacking the outpost? I might be mostly depleted, but I am still a stage 7 earth mage, even without active mana reservoirs I am still far stronger than you!! Plus Marc will stay here with me anyway”

“Hey! I-“ Marc tried to inject

“Quiet youngling!” Brian interrupted him “You are barely a Stage 5 mage, you will not go into an unexplored dungeon while I am responsible for you!

“Fine, you are not worried about the outpost” Fabian tried again “But I am a Stage 5 physical user who concentrated on strengthening my muscles. Do you honestly believe that a young dungeon has enough to seriously threaten me on the first 5 floors?”

“That’s just it. I don’t know! I have never encountered a dungeon with such an extensive surface area! We have to expect anything!”

“Fine, How about this. Do you agree our contract with the conglomerate is completed with the construction of the outpost?”

“I do”

“Then I hereby declare that in case of our deaths, our rewards shall go to Marc here and we will go our separate ways and I hereby absolve you of any responsibilities in case of our demise.”

Fabian tried his last method. Though if Brian really wanted to stop them, there wouldn’t be much the 7 of them could do against a Stage 7 user, even if he was a mage.

“Fine! Then go to your death if you want to kill yourselves so urgently” He finally relented. Standing up from the table, returning to the barracks to meditate and sleep.

Fabian meanwhile looked triumphantly at his companions who seemed equally elated with the exception of marc who looked like he just bit on a lemon.

“Ok everyone. Tomorrow morning we will do a short exploration of the first floor on the surface. We will go about this in a careful manner. We will not take any unnecessary risks, nor are we going to go out of our way to find treasures. The goal of tomorrow’s excursion will be one of exploration, not conquest.

We have many more days until the expedition sent out by the conglomerate should arrive, we will make full use of it to explore as much of this dungeon as possible.

So make sure your gear is read, get some sleep and we will start with sunrise tomorrow.” Fabian decided. Getting up to do as he suggested he spared a glance for the disappointed earth mage, “Sorry Marc”

Most were getting up as well to check their gear, while some remained to talk a bit more before doing the same and getting an early rest for the adventure to come tomorrow.

***

The adventure to come was boring! Mia kept stumbling over the roots on the floor of the forest they’ve been wandering through for several hours already. Except for the fascinating bridges above and the taste of primordial mana in the air they hadn’t encountered a single beast, trap or treasure yet. It was as if this dungeon had no interest at all in keeping out invaders as most others did.

She was one of the few people who decided to become a mage. Though she was only Stage 5 like the rest of her team, she hadn’t decided on her specialization yet. She only just managed to construct her mana storage and was still working on the control of her mana whenever she tried to cast a spell. For now there was not yet much difference between herself and a Stage 5 physical user who tried not to specialize himself for either speed or strength, but keeping a bit of both.

From now on however she would have it a lot harder than her friends, as she would have to start working on the conduits to expel and absorb mana in greater quantities than her friends. For now though she just followed Luke who was trotting along in front of her, letting her eyes wander around the forest of the crater valley.

They have been following the bridges above them forever it seemed. What the point of that was she couldn’t say, since they already passed several pillars that had a diameter of several hundred meters at the base each. She once thought she heard the howl of a wolf in the distance but so far she hadn’t spied any yet. The most peculiar though were the different kind of caves that they found at the base.

Some dark, and some brightly lit. With the mana flowing clearly from them, indicating they were the path to the second floor.

No dungeon however would leave their entrance to deeper levels so unprotected, so they were confused about the purpose of these tunnels. The highlight of their expedition so far seemed to be the one deer they saw disappear from the distance and that seemed to be it.

Once the sun above reached the apex, they were all surprised by it, as it hadn’t seemed so long since they started out, they just hadn’t encountered anything yet, while aimlessly wandering about the valley floor.

Deciding to rest and eat some lunch, they discussed how to proceed further from here on out.

“I say we follow one of the tunnels leading deeper, there is no point in staying up here if there is nothing here at all” Luke suggested from her left, which seemed to earn general agreement from most of them including herself.

“I agree, even the mana concentration is not enough here to make any meaningful progress cultivation here compared to outside the dungeon.” She threw in herself.

“I agree, it doesn’t seem like there is much going on on this floor at all. What do you think Horace?”

Fabian asked their trained scout that roamed around them when they were exploring during the morning.

“Sounds good to me” the scout replied “I only saw mostly normal beasts, with only minimal improvement. Though they seemed to be a lot more common down on the valley floor than up above. Any of you saw the mountain goats roaming the pillars? I have never seen them roam so far into the flatlands from their mountains before”

“No, but curious as it is it poses no danger to us. Then how about we make our way back to the edge on as direct a path as possible and then descend a level before we return to camp?”

With everyone in agreement they followed Horace back to the edge of the crater, that they reached in only a short hour compared to the winding path following the bridges that they took on their way out.

Making sure everyone was ready Fabian nodded to Horace to lead the way, and the group of them made their way down one of the well lit tunnels littering the crater to the second floor, hoping to find something worthy to report before being forced to return to camp.