The air was rank with the scent of unwashed bodies, filth, and animals. Wrinkling her nose, Inke glanced around as she appeared on the teleportation platform, noting the disparity between the two. For a teleportation platform to exist, a high-level Architect tied to Space would had to have invested at least a week into constructing it. However, such services carried a high price attached to any possible construction, at odds with the general poverty that surrounded Inke.

But no, poverty wasn’t quite the right word. While no one, or close to it, at least, seemed to understand basic concepts of cleanliness, the area around her was a market. Merchants hawked potions and weapons alongside vendors offering food. Even as she watched, an adventurer splattered in blood and grime stepped up to a makeshift stall, swapping a bag of crystal from what must have been the dungeon for several throwing daggers.

Shaking her head, Inke walked off the platform. As she did, more than a few heads turned her way, noticing the appearance of someone using a teleportation sigil. However, the use must have been more common than she assumed, as none of them paid her any further notice.

Onto her task, then. Observe, and intriguingly, protect.

Stealthily, too.

Shatters didn’t protect. And if they were to do so, they certainly didn’t protect dungeon cores. After all, their entire existence was centered around the notion of destroying dungeons. Furthermore, why a dungeon would need protection was beyond Inke. Only rogue dungeons were shattered, and thus in need of any sort of protection. But if this dungeon were rogue, Inke would have been assigned to destroy it, rather than protect it.

Luckily, Inke’s job didn’t involve worrying about those sorts of questions.

As she merged into the mass of people, walking through the marketplace, bright rays of sunlight shone onto the ground. They illuminated and reflected brightly off several adventurers’ armor. Inke followed after them, tracing their steps through the crowd. It wouldn’t do to seem overly obvious, but neither would it to be suspiciously stealthy about following them. In a developing city built around a dungeon like this one, crime had to be running rampant.

It was an unfortunate side effect of expensive goods produced by the dungeon packed together with powerful adventurers drawn by the allure of the dungeon.

Hopefully, whoever ran the city had established some sort of watch or guard.

Or not. It didn’t particularly matter to Inke. She pitied anyone who attempted to steal from her.

Inke glanced down at her left side. Especially anyone who tried to steal Ignari.

She trailed behind the party of adventurers as the crowds began to thicken. This close to the dungeon, makeshift stalls gave way for erected buildings and actual shops guarded by hired adventurers. Land around dungeon entrances was always expensive due to the higher EXP concentration and first access to goods brought out from the dungeon, but it came with the additional problem of both prideful, powerful customers along with the risk of an invasion by the dungeon.

For established dungeons, it was rare to see a break from the usual norms and patterns, so the risk was lower. However, for a new dungeon like the one Inke was assigned to, quite a few of them went rogue within the first several months.

It was probably a good thing, or Inke would be out of a job.

She really needed to figure out how long the dungeon had been established. Typically, Inke received basic dungeon information such as age and maps when assigned to destroy a dungeon core, but thus far, her assignment had proven to be anything but typical.

Casually, Inke walked over to a clerk from the Adventurer Guild positioned in front of the dungeon entrance. She reached for her sleeve to display her bracelet that marked her as a Shatter before pausing. Stealth.

Right.

Without looking up, the clerk continued writing something and said, “Entrances per week are limited to one per person, two if entering with a party. While the dungeon does seem to have access to some form of spatial magic due to being instanced, it only supports ten concurrent instances. If you wish to enter the dungeon, you may add your name and rank to the wait list. Higher ranked adventurers are prioritized for dungeon entrance.” She ran a hand through frizzy dark brown hair and added, “Attacking another member of the Guild such as myself is a one-week ban from the dungeon for a first infraction.”

At least she didn’t have to wait for a long time. Inke doubted that anyone here was higher ranked than Silver, and Inke was Platinum VI, far beyond that. Her Adventurer Guild bracelet was on her right arm, opposite the Shatter on her left-

Inke was beginning to despise stealth.

When she didn’t immediately respond, the clerk glanced up. “If you are not a member of the Guild-”

“Wait!” Breathing heavily, a young man skidded next to Inke, hand held up. He was doubled over, panting, other hand resting on a bent knee. When he finally stood, she noted the way his cheeks were flushed a heavy red against the backdrop of a deep mahogany brown complexion. Presumably, then, he had a low endurance, which was odd. Very few classes didn’t grant at least minor bonuses to that stat.

Or he was extremely low level.

That was probably more likely.

“I-” he said before breaking off, coughing. “Give me a moment.”

The clerk’s lips pressed together in annoyance with eyes narrowed, though she didn’t say anything.

The man turned to Inke. “Party with me?”

It was an odd way of phrasing it, but if someone could mark their ranking down as a party registration, it would be far preferable to Inke being forced to obtain a false membership with the Adventurer Guild. She had to ask, however, “Why?”

He gave a high-pitched laugh, hands fidgeting. “Y-you look high level, and I can’t convince anyone to party with me, b-but you seem…” Trailing off, he added, “In a standard five-person party, there’s always at least one who isn’t willing to carry me in exchange for better wait times.”

Inke blinked, brow furrowed. “Better wait times?” She glanced down at herself, as well. Ignari hung at her hip, and Soar rested on her finger, but neither of them were overtly powerful items, and she wore only simple leather gear. Nothing that might indicate she was high leveled.

Nodding frantically, he said, “Yeah. I, uh, well, I own the land the dungeon is on, so I get three entrances a week plus priority in entering it.” He took a deep breath and rapidly added something unintelligible.

…It was probably unimportant. Inke shrugged. “Alright. I’m Inke. Architect, and my concept is-” she paused imperceptibly. Bond was a rare concept, and she didn’t know of any other Architects using it.

“-Wind,” she finished without missing a beat. As long as she managed to quietly activate Soar, the ring should be able to passably imitate spells from that concept. “And you?”

“Oh, I’m Harin!” Hesitantly, he glanced away. “…Adaptor.”

If his class was Adaptor, that went a long way towards explaining the reasoning behind his lack of a party. Out of the three core classes, Adaptors tended to almost universally be weaker than Architects or Annihilators. Compared to creating or destroying, change wasn’t nearly as powerful or even useful. Then, again, there were certainly some concepts that synergized well with the Adaptor class.

Blushing furiously, Harin mumbled something quietly. At Inke’s quizzical look, slightly louder, he repeated, “Mana.”

Inke tried not to let it show, but she was reasonably certain some of her emotions bled through as her eyes widened. Every so often, someone tried to tie themselves to the concept of Health or similar, intangible parts of the Status screen in the hopes of gaining power quickly. Unfortunately, the mana demands for most of the skills made it all but impossible to level the class, leaving those unfortunates stuck with an unusable class.

Well, if he was going to choose one of them, at least Mana was more usable than quite a few of the other ones. She ran into an adventurer once who had picked Experience and whose only usable skill was decreasing someone’s Experience by ten a minute. And on the off chance that a monster stood still long enough that the Experience loss killed it, it wouldn’t even reward anything as a result.

Compared to that, Mana wasn’t really all that bad.

Compared to just about everything else, it was.

She nodded. “We should party, then.”

Harin’s mouth fell open. “W-what? Really? Thank you, t-thank you so much! We can, uh-” He turned to the clerk. “Is the dungeon open?”

The clerk fixed him with a deadpan stare. “No. I’ll put you on the list, then.”

Calmly, Inke sat down a distance from the dungeon entrance, ignoring several of Harin’s aborted attempts at conversation. She wasn’t particularly interested in hearing about his childhood struggles of inheriting the land from his deceased parents as his relatives fought to steal his inheritance from him.

No, Inke had better things to think about. Like what sort of concept the dungeon was tied to. From what she had heard, it was instanced, but the monsters within didn’t drop Space crystal. Inke asked Harin as much, interrupting his spiel about being shunned as an adult due to his class.

He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Ah, you haven’t heard? That’s why everyone’s here, because it doesn’t seem to have a concept. So far, the monsters have only dropped basic concepts like Fire and Metal, but everyone’s hoping that if it progresses in level, more complex and powerful Crystal will be produced.”

Inke froze. That- why hadn’t the Guildmaster given her more information? If that was the case, it was no wonder that people might try to destroy the dungeon core. When monsters- or anyone, really- died, their Experience and Mana dispersed into a combination of the surrounding world along with a decent chunk going to whatever had killed them. The class, the concept, skills, however- those became Crystal, used to produce potions and other magical items.

Depending on the concept, Crystal was also useful to power things from basic portable lights to teleportation. If the dungeon produced multiple kinds of Crystal, its potential value was inestimable.

Some of her thought process must have shown on her face because Harin laughed sheepishly. “And I own the dungeon…” He shook his head. “To be honest, at any given moment, I’m more than mildly terrified someone’s going to assassinate me in the hopes of getting the land. Not that I’ve got an heir or anything, so, uh, probably’d throw the area into disarray. Or something.”

The two lapsed into silence after that, waiting until the clerk called them.

By the time she did, the sun had fallen from its zenith. “Harin and party, Copper I.”

There was an assortment of snickers from the gathered adventurers waiting to enter the dungeon, and more than one glare from parties upset at being pushed further back and possibly not being able to enter the dungeon that day.

As Harin ducked his head down, tips of his ears red, Inke took the opportunity to quietly mutter under her breath, “Activate Bond: Soar.” A blue screen appeared in front of her.

Activated Bond: Soar

Mana Drain: 120/minute

Status

Skills

Stat Increase – AGI: +20

Stat Increase – END: +15

Stat Increase – STR: +15

Stat Increase – REF: +20

Gained Skill: Flight

Gained Skill: Compress Air

Gained Skill: Wall of Wind

Gained Skill: Suffocate

Gained Skill: Gust

With a mental nudge, she swiped it away and stepped into the dungeon.

Entered Dungeon: The Dungeon-y Dungeon of Dungeons (without Dragons)