Shawn

"Say, Shawn," Amber tells me as we walk through a corridor on the third floor of the dungeon.

I glance at Amber before asking, "What's up?"

"I was wondering what difficulty level this dungeon is," Amber asks before shooting an icicle at a skeleton as soon as it rounds the corner.

"Difficulty?" I repeat before answering, "Well, this is a Mid-Level One Star Dungeon, so there are only monsters ranging from levels 3 to 7 in here."

Good thing too because a High-Level dungeon would be too difficult for me to train in.

I would rather not constantly fight monsters that are at the end of the one-star range after all.

Or at least, not until I am a couple of levels higher.

A Low-Level dungeon wouldn't have worked very well either. The monsters would have been too low in level and rank, only ranging from levels 1 to 4.

"Have you ever cleared this dungeon before?" Josh asks me.

"I have cleared it before, but not solo. I should be able to do that soon enough though," I respond while casually sending my miasma to kill a little slime.

The corridor becomes silent as we continue through.

I study Aldred for a bit as I try to figure out his level.

If I were to guess, then I would peg him at around level 11 or 12.

We soon arrive at the door to the boss room as I am studying him.

Aldred grabs the door handle and opens the door, revealing a ghoul in the center of the room.

The ghoul quickly tries to rush towards us but is immediately blasted by fireballs from Aldred.

I wince a little while watching the poor ghoul as it burns while still attempting to get to us.

Yeah, he definitely has two stars. There is no doubt about that.

I reach up to scratch my chin before remembering that I lost my mask.

Well, that's annoying.

Good thing I have a spare.

I reach into my storage ring and pull out a spare mask.

Amber glances at me from the side while Aldred finishes off the ghoul.

"Good thing you have a spare. Causing a commotion due to your eyes is not something we want when we get out of the dungeon," Amber comments before turning to the door to the next floor as it appears after the ghoul finally dies.

I silently nod my head before we pass through to the next floor.

I draw both of my swords as Aldred opens the boss room door for the final floor.

What appears on the other side is a goblin shaman, as well as a group of four goblins surrounding him.

Aldred fires his fireball as usual while I send a wave of miasma.

Amber, however, does something different this time.

She sends a wave of cold their way instead of her usual icicle.

Amber's wave of cold freezes the four goblins in place, immobilizing them but not killing them as my miasma sneaks through the ice and begins to devour their bodies while they are frozen in place.

Meanwhile, the goblin shaman panics at the sight of his subordinates in such a poor condition already and fires its own fireball at Aldred.

The fireballs collide midair, but Aldred's overpowers the shaman's and continues through towards the shaman before directly hitting him.

By the looks of it, the shaman's fireball managed to weaken Aldred's fireball, so Aldred's attack doesn't end up killing the shaman and instead just knocks him onto his back.

The shaman quickly tries to get up from his back but fails to do so before attempting to raise its staff in a last-ditch magical attack.

Out of nowhere, a dagger appears in-between the shaman's eyes.

I glance around the room to find the origin of the dagger, but Elizabeth slowly walks over and takes the dagger out of the shaman before sheathing it in a sheath that was hidden on her thigh.

Interesting. So, she is some sort of scout then?

I hear pained groans from my right, reminding me of the four goblins currently being devoured by my miasma.

"Oh yeah, forgot about you guys," I mutter before walking over to them and killing each of them one by one with my sword.

Poor things were missing a lot of flesh when I killed them though.

I generate a little ball of miasma over my hand and watch it for a moment.

Miasma is a really helpful power, but it can be rather cruel to use sometimes while I am still at a low level.

I reabsorb the miasma into my palms before turning towards the others as Aldred approaches me.

"Here is your share of the loot," Aldred says before dropping a small pouch of coins into my hand.

I quickly deposit said pouch into my storage ring before saying, "It was nice working with you."

Two doors suddenly appear in the center of the room.

One of them has a dull red glow and seems to be leaking ash around it, meanwhile the other has a dull blue glow and is leaking snow.

Aldred reaches his arm out towards me and says, "It was nice working with you too, but remember that you still have to come with us to the guild to register."

I smirk before taking his offered hand and saying, "Yeah, but I am going to be leaving the Isle of Drifting Ash as soon as possible. I wouldn't want to be caught up in any of the trouble that Island Lord of yours is cooking up."

Aldred smiles sadly back to me before letting go of my arm and saying, "There might be a problem with that plan."

My brows furrow as I ask, "Why?

Aldred glances towards Amber before looking at me again and saying, "Well, all of the dungeons leading off of the Isle of Drifting Ash are either two- or three-star dungeons, aside from the one to the Isle of Fallen Snow."

My jaw drops open at the news.

"Sorry for not telling you sooner, but you might have to spend some time on the island to train in the one-star dungeon before you can leave the island, because I doubt any group of adventurers would take in a stranger who hides his face," Amber says to me in a tone that makes her sound a little apologetic, but also not at the same time.

I narrow my eyes at her and Aldred.

Aldred glances back at Amber again before looking towards me and taking a deep breath.

He waits a few seconds before releasing the breath and asking, "Would you like to join our party?"