"Good morning, adventurers!" the guard said with a polite smile. "Are you ready for a tour around the town, or are do you wish for some more time?" he asked, still politely smiling as he paused, waiting for us to reply.

I looked at Briar, who shrugged her shoulder with a careless expression, and I turned to look at the guard again, nodding with a smile. "We'll be under your care," I remarked as I gestured for him to start moving.

"Very well. Please follow me," the guard said, smiling with a nod of his own as he turned around and began walking towards the exit, with us right behind him.

"We will first make our way to the shops that provide services adventurers such as yourself would need while exploring the dungeon," the guard leisurely remarked as he walked in front of us.

"The first of such shops is the pioneer," the guard explained while pointing towards a relatively big shop with a wooden sign that had the words Meave Tunics on it.

"Madame Meave runs this place, and she offers quite the diverse collection of potions and remedies," he added while pointing towards the shop's glass front that displayed many colorful bottles with different labels.

"If it ails someone, then I can cure it," the guard remarked with a light chuckle. "These are the words the madame Meave lives by, so make sure to stop by whenever you have the time to do so," he added as he began walking again.

...

"The second shop is Honey Wood Town's one and only blacksmith," the guard said while gesturing towards a shop that had an anvil-shaped with the words Fabron's arms on it.

"Old Farrier runs the blacksmithy, and his works are unrivaled in all the surrounding towns and villages as the man descends from a long line of blacksmiths," the guard explained while pointing towards the shop.

"Even his name means young blacksmith, so you can always rest assured that you're getting your money's worth when buying from him," the guard concluded jokingly with a chuckle as he began walking again.

...

"And here we have Honey Wood town's general store," the guard said while pointing towards a small shop with a sign that had the words, general goods store, on it.

"Dido, the merchant, runs this shop," he explained while pointing towards the shop. "And whether it be torches, lamps, bedrolls, preserved food, ropes, or any other miscellaneous supplies, you can find almost anything you might need here," he added while gesturing with his hands to emphasize his point.

...

"And last but not least, we have the dungeon itself," the guard said with a frown, losing the polite smile he wore since we met him as soon as we reached the dungeon, which was outside the town to the east.

"It used to be very peaceful, with nothing coming out of it until a month ago when monsters began flooding out of it in droves," he added with a sigh while pointing at the entrance of a cave.

It looked like your average cave entrance connected to a tall cliff with moss and algae hanging off its sides, and the only thing being strange about it being how wide it was.

There were also many traces of creatures steps in front of it, indicating a lot of activity, but the tracks themselves were very diverse, ranging from footsteps to hooves and even insectoid limbs.

"And that's why we, the people of Honey Wood, asked the lord of this area to call for some adventures to come to our aid," he explained while shaking his head. "And now that I think about it, there were supposed to be five of you. Did something happen?" He asked with a confused expression as if suddenly remembering something.

"Yeah, the other three adventurers were actually brothers, and they received a message that their mother is sick, so they excused themselves," I replied with a shrug, not showing any sign of hesitation or guilt.

"I see, but can the two of you take care of the dungeon situation alone?" the guard asked again in a concerned tone, alternating his gaze between Briar and myself.

"I assure you, my partner and I are more than enough to take care of your problem," I said in an assuring tone with a smile on my face. "But we need some information about the dungeon before we can do that," I added while pointing towards the cave entrance.

"Of course!" the guard remarked, reverting back to his smile, seemingly assured by my words and confident tone. "The dungeon itself consists of three levels, or it used to at least," he explained while raising three fingers.

"But several more levels suddenly appeared since last month, and we only explored two of them before we lost too many people to continue the exploration," he added while heaving a heavy sigh.

"So we don't know how many levels the dungeon currently has," he concluded while apologetically shaking his head. "That's fine, but can we expect from the first five levels?" I said while waving my hand to the side.

"This dungeon, like all others, scales in difficulty with the deeper you go," the guard explained. "The first level is the easiest, with nothing but kobolds and goblins," he added in a dismissive tone.

"The second level is pretty much the same with some simple traps like pitfalls scattered around," he stated. "The third level is where stronger creatures like orcs appear, along with the goblins, kobolds, and traps," he added.

"The fourth level is also not much different from the third, except for having more creatures and traps," he remarked, pausing for a second to choose his words.

"However, the creatures in the fifth level tend to be more organized, work with monsters from the same species forming tribes and whatnot," he explained in a severe tone. "And that's not all as there is a gigantic cow-like humanoid monster lurking about," he added with a complicated expression.

"It was that damned monster that caused us to stop exploring the dungeon after killing many guards," he concluded while heaving a sad sigh.

"Well, the monster will pay for killing your comrades sooner rather than later, so leave to us and rest assured," I said in an assuring tone as I patted the guard's shoulder, earning a grateful nod from the man.

"Will you go in now, or do you need to make some preparations first?" the guard asked after a second of silence he used to gather his bearing. "We'll start exploring the dungeon tomorrow, as we still need to buy the necessary supplies we would need and make a plan before doing anything else," I replied while shaking my head.

"Well, then I'll leave you to it," the guard said with a nod. "Farewell, and good luck adventures," he added as he turned around and left, making his way back towards the town.

"So, how do we do this?" I asked as I turned to look at Briar as soon as the guard was on his way. "I'm sure you already have something in mind, so let me hear that first," she replied in a playful tone with a shrug, rolling her eyes at me.

"Right." I cleared my throat with a nod. "I think we should check out the potion store in the town first," I remarked while pointing my finger in the town's general direction.

"And why the potion store specifically?" Briar asked with a curious expression. "Well, we need to find out if there is a potion that can take the badges' place," I replied with a sigh.

"And I'm sure we can figure out a lot of information about the dungeon there," I stated, earning a nod from Briar as she gestured for me to keep going with her hand.

"The owner of the potion shop is likely very knowledgeable about the dungeon and its dangers," I explained while pointing towards the dungeon.

"And you think she would know about it because anyone injured there would go to her for treatment, making Meave very knowledgeable about the dangers we could face," Briar reasoned with a rare thoughtful look on her face, causing me to nod at her.

"Makes sense, I supposed," she added with a shrug, and I nodded at her, genuinely impressed by how quickly she caught on to my reasoning.

"We also need to make our way to the general goods store for the same reason," I added with a thoughtful expression of my own. "The shop owner will know everything about what sort of items adventurers need while exploring a dungeon," I concluded, pausing my speech and waiting for Briar to reply.

"Sounds good to me, but what about the blacksmithy. Don't you think we should give it a look too?" Briar asked in a curious tone. "I personally don't think I'll need to since I already have a weapon, but we can drop by if you need a weapon or something," I replied with a shrug as I materialized Bloodsport in my hand.

"Sure, let's get going then!"