In the morning, a group of individuals has been gathered in the mansion hall. Of course, they wouldn't have assembled in here if it wasn't for a summon from their leader.

"I give you guys my heartfelt gratitude for answering my call." thanked the blond man that currently stands at the frontmost of the room.

"Since I'm pretty sure that you guys are already busy with your private matter, I'll cut this short." Clearing his throat, Laurent then shouted, "In one week from now, we'll split the exploration team into 14 parties to 14 cities, each consist of 5 members that has been balanced out by me and the sub-leader!"

Subsequent to the announcement, Ryu took a step, standing beside his leader as it's his turns to explain the crucial details regarding the topic.

"The goal of this plan is to protect all 14 cities from the Dungeon outbreak at the same time;"

"Because we're required to see the efficiency of the project, this split exploration will only last for 3 months, which later you guys must return to this place to report how are the first quarter year turned out to be;"

"Of course, this was not absolute. If a party detected that the Dungeon outbreak could happen anytime soon around the scheduled time of return, the involved party could decide to postpone the return for another month;"

"Any loot that the party obtained during this period doesn't need to be turned over to the association, you guys could divide it among yourself;"

"Lastly, the association will cover all of the parties' preparation and travel cost, that's all." folding up the paper, Ryu ended his clear speech.

"Well, that's the basis of it, anything you didn't understand?" questioned Laurent. With that, soon, some members raised their hands. Although the majority was to ask what they're still confused about, there's also a group that disagreed with the project. When it comes to that, it's Laurent's duty to convince them just like what he did to Ryu yesterday.

***

"That ended quite smoothly, wasn't it?" remarked Ryu while throwing his body at the office couch. "Yeah, I initially thought that at least half would reject the project." acknowledged Laurent.

"Do you think this was also because of the last second's idea?"

Hearing this, Laurent nodded, "It definitely impacted a lot."

At first, the content of the paper that Laurent gave to Ryu only consisted of the first 3 sentences that Ryu read out loud earlier. Foresaw that the member wouldn't buy this project, Ryu quickly insisted Laurent to gave a reward towards the members so that it's worthwhile for the risk and time.

"In the end, everything was driven by their own selfishness, huh," muttered Laurent.

"Seriously, Laurent, not everyone is a goody-two-shoes like you."

"I'm no-." Ryu instantly interjected, "No, you are!"

"You know the dark side of the world yet still act for the benefit of humanity, what's that called if it's not a goody-two-shoes then?" Noticed that Laurent drew back his intention to retort, Ryu quietly sighed, "That's what made me want to join your side through."

***

The week has passed swiftly for the one who's in the part of the Laurent Association exploration group. Knowing that the risk for this split exploration was higher than what they usually do, like Ryu, some decided to use the rest of the day with their family. There's also a group that chose to hold a party every day. A handful of people even stay in the brothel for the whole week. And at last, the time has come, they've gathered on the Fire city port, preparing to depart to the cities they're assigned to.

In one of the harbors, Laurent declared, "Listen, before we go, I do not wish for casualties. If it was too unsafe to proceed with the exploration, overseeing the lower floor is enough."

"Aya, did you hear that? Just stays at the lower floor, okay?" said Ryu while strengthening his grip on Ayano's hand, although he already spends 24/7 with his wife, there's still a disturbing feeling that he can't take out from his mind. "Geez, how long you're planning to hold on that thought?"

Leaning her head over Ryu's shoulder, Ayano reassured, "I'll surely go back to your side the moment our foot landed again in this city." Sharing their last kiss, the first one to leave was Ryu's and 5 additional parties as the latter must cross the Sea city territory to be able to go to their respective stations. The rest of the parties (Ayano's party included) got sent separately until the last one was their leader party.

***

Ryu's group has sailed through the ocean for about 4 days, in those times, he had encountered a bunch of sea monsters. Although it later got slain effortlessly by his group, it's still raised a question on his mind. 'Was the sea condition is this bad?'

For his group that's currently hold a 6 3rd-tiered individual, those type of monsters was like a warm-up exercise as it mainly resides in the lower floor of the Dungeon. But, for an ordinary or low-leveled person that's transverse through the sea, this really could be considered a disaster. If it was this dangerous, their intel, at best, only have a 60% chance of successfully delivering the information to the Fire city. 'Don't tell me, was it another overflow?'

In the middle of this pondering, an island finally entered his field of vision. Unlike the rest of the cities, Sea city was an archipelago that contains a minimum of 100 islands, which 8 of them are big enough to be utilized as the main island for their people.

At the center of the archipelago, there's an island that exclusively constructed with a 3 story building. It looks beautiful from the outside, but this assumption immediately crumbled when Ryu saw a fish akin to the piranha swarmed out from the bottom of that island.

'Oh my, talk about the devil.' Ryu then shouted, "Prepare for a battle!"