“Alright, everybody. You know the operation. The dungeon is only supposed to be a couple of months, so we go in, grab the core and get out before the adventure guild gets here.” Said Kala’i, the human leader of our small group.

“Get your stuff, and get ready. We’re going in.” When Kala’i said this, everybody nodded at her.

Their group was a four-man team that was contracted by a wealthy noble within one of the kingdoms on the Ekesh continent, which kingdom she couldn’t remember, to grab the dungeon core before the adventurers guild got control of the dungeon. The team consisted of their leader, Kala’i a female human, their tank, Kaj, a male lizardfolk, Sein, a male half-elf who was a mage, and herself, Vanida, a nature nymph and the group’s healer.

The group got into formation, and right before they reached the dungeon’s entrance, Kala’i spoke up. “We don’t know what’s going to be in there. We don’t know how many floors, and there was a recent mana disturbance in this area that nobody knows its cause. So stay alert, and keep your eyes peeled.”

Vanida smiled and nodded as they started walking into the dungeon.

As they entered into the dungeon, Vanida could feel a high amount of mana. More than what you would think in a recent dungeon, and more than she has ever encountered when diving in young dungeons.

“Do you guys feel the mana density in here?” asked Vanida to the rest of her group members.

“Ya, it’s strange,” said Sein. “It shouldn’t be this high in a new dungeon. Kala’i, are you sure this is a dungeon only a couple of months old? It feels like a dungeon that has at least 75 floors.”

“The reports we have stated that this dungeon is at most nine months old. I know this is weird, be careful. Something is up with this dungeon,” stated Kala’i. “Be prepared, with this anomaly, we might have to abandon the contract,” said the leader grimly.

The way that the leader spoke made the rest of the team more concerned. They thought that if the leader is saying this, this now. Well, this made everything more real and concerned for the group. Especially since their group hasn’t really been together for a long time. Their group has only been together for two months. Half used to be in other groups or soloed before then, but the rest were new to adventuring. This made the people in the group all not that coordinated with each other.

They walked down a curved hallway into the first room that they had encountered. The room was filled with trees and plants, but so far, no creatures or monsters were seen.

When they got to the middle of the room, a rustling of a bush caught the attention of the group. As the group tensed, a long haired adorable rabbit popped out. Seeing that this cute rabbit was not a monster, the group loosened up.

Vanida, a lover of rabbits and cute things, thought that the rabbit was absolutely adorable and went to pet it. As she reached for it, the rabbit suddenly stiffened and leapt at her throat, showing long sharp teeth. Just as the rabbit reached her, Kala’i grabbed and pulled her back, leaving the monster rabbit to only graze her with his teeth.

Quickly, Kaj grabbed his sword and cut the monster rabbit in half.

Vanida, who was just saved by Kala’i, gasped and stared in horror at the dead rabbit.

Kala’i glared at Vanida and said, “Are you fucking stupid. You are in a dungeon. Everything in here is potentially dangerous. Get your head in the game. You are our only healer, and if you die in the first room on the first floor of a dungeon that we have no information about, it will make us have to turn back. And we will probably not be able to bring your body back. So smarten up, and let’s get going.”

Vanida shakily nodded, and the group continued through the dungeon. They fought off rabbits, hawks and fought the kobolds of the first floor.

As the group continued on, they realized that this was not a normal dungeon. That something was very different, which meant that this dungeon may not be operating the way that the veteran adventurers of the group have experienced in other young dungeons. There shouldn’t have been this many different types of monsters and creatures attacking them on the first floor. What they have experienced in other dungeons was that this happened on the third to the fifth floor.

When they finally got to the boss room, both Vanida and Sein had many cuts. At the same time, Kala’i and Kaj were practically unharmed.

The group entered the room and met a larger and stronger kobold. Quickly, Kala’i ordered Sein and Vanida to stay back and use long-range magic attacks on the kobold and to heal the front fighters.

Kala’i quickly used her “taunt” ability to focus the kobold’s attention on her while Kaj attacked the boss’s side. The kobold was a formidable fighter, more challenging than the group would have thought. But while the group attacked the boss monster, they didn’t realize another monster in the room.

As Kaj and Kala’i went in for the killing blow, Vanida was attacked on the side by a couple of large insects.

She screamed, alerting the rest of the group that there was a problem. This distraction stopped the killing blow, and that was enough for Kala’i to be wounded along their side.

Before the group could get to Vanida, she had already been almost dragged through a hidden hole at the side of the room.

The group watched in horror as their healer, their somewhat friend, was dragged into the unknown depths of the dungeon. The group, who was not paying attention to the boss monster, allowed it to attack them while distracted.

The kobold dispatched Kraj, then the wounded Kala’i, and then it turned to the group’s last living member.

As the boss turned to Sein, Kala’i, who was still alive, but not for long without their healer, attacked the boss monster and screamed, “Run Sein!”.

Sein ran, not out towards the exit, but towards the stairway to the second level.

Sein ran through the maze, only getting a couple of metres away from the second floor’s entrance before he was snatched around his by a vine with sharp curved spikes that dug into his skin.

Sein died slowly from blood loss and a crushed throat. His last thoughts were, “We should have turned back and should have never taken that job.”