Leo kept looking at the women, "Did you all just leveled up?"

"Yeah, baby! Sweet sweety level 3," Blue celebrated as she looked at her status.

"What about the compendium? How do we access it?" Alex asked.

"Check your tablet. There is a compendium app. I guess it's already there. When I bought one, it was downloaded to the app. We need to see who got it," Hera replied, already opening her compendium to confirm it. There was a dungeon tab on the app and the information about the Arcanist's Lookout, "Oh, I think I'm the one who got it."

"I got it too," Alex was staring at her tablet.

"What? Really?" Hera asked.

"Yeah. What about you, guys?" Alex turned toward the rest of the group.

Leo and Blue nodded, Bonnie, on the other hand, was looking at her tablet with wide eyes.

"What's the matter?" Leo asked.

"Check your wallets!" Bonnie gasped with a large smile.

The group opened the virtual wallets, all of them had an extra 5 000 gold. Looking at the tablet, Hera also noticed a chest icon with a notification mark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pending rewards

Minor Elemental Essence Select

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Choosing the essence, select another window opened, asking what element she wanted. She could choose between fire, earth, wind, water, and spirit. Each essence could be used to enchant an item or as a catalyst for various magic devices. Unsure of what to pick, Hera just locked the tablet and opened her status.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hera Kingsley — Role: Explorer — Level: 3

Mana: 126/126

Stats: Increase all

Strength: 12 + Endurance: 12 +

Agility: 12 + Charisma: 12 +

Intelligence: 12 + Luck: 12 +

Attribute Points Available: 4 + 6(bonus) Total: 10

Skills:

Passive:

Exponential Growth

Observe

Treasure Map

Handaxe Combat, Chakram Combat

Dodge, Run ,Improved Stamina

Active:

All in

Inspect

Hide

Local Guide

Weapon Maintenance

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She used the increase all three times, having all her status at 15 now. Just to be safe, Hera checked if there were any changes in the skill.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Exponential Growth:

While all attributes have the same value,

the user can increase all the attributes by 1 at once.

Cost changes with the value of the attributes

Current attribute point cost to use the skill: 4 points

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So after 5 points, it increases the cost. And I guess I have an extra point for the next level," she mumbled to herself.

"The effect seems so weak. I can't feel anything," Blue huffed.

"Yeah, we need to sleep, remember? The effect only fully triggers after you rest," Alex explained.

"Oh, that's right. I'm gonna wake up swollen," Blue stared to make poses as if she was a bodybuilder.

"Everything on strength, why am I not surprised?" Bonnie said, rolling her eyes. Blue huffed and kept looking at her stats.

"Why did you increase strength? If I remember it right, it was at 10. The way you fight, wouldn't it be better endurance or agility?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, but I need some more strength to throw the things. I can't do it with the frogs, not just for the size but because they are too heavy. I'm going to raise it for a while, just to be sure my opponent's weight won't hinder me. And it wasn't all the points in strength, by the way. I just raised it by two."

"That is actually a smart move. Then again, you can teach sign language to a gorilla so that it's not surprising," Bonnie finished speaking and saw the angry expression of the group staring at her, "Sorry, that went over the line," she looked down avoiding their gaze.

"It's fine. Without you, this dungeon would have been much harder to complete. You get this free pass, but next time you won't be so lucky," Blue waved off the researcher.

The group spent a few minutes talking about their stats and decided to leave the dungeon. Going into the platform, it started to rise towards the next floor as soon as someone stepped in the center of the spiral. Looking towards the ceiling, Hera saw a dense layer of fog. It looked like the big crystal was letting out some sort of steam. As they got closer, she used her pulse and confirmed that the fog was made of mana.

The few seconds they stayed inside the fog was enough to recover all the mana that Hera had spent, but it also made the group start coughing. Thankfully, when the elevator reached the next floor, it sealed off the room below.

Before heading out, the group spent an hour revisiting the rooms they left, making sure they didn't miss anything. All the traps had stopped working, and inside the rooms, there was nothing they hadn't seen before. The one odd thing is that everything seemed strangely quiet. Even the claymen were gone.

Deciding to leave, the group walked towards the exit. This time, there was no invisible wall blocking their path. Going up the staircase, the group made a single file once again. After a few minutes, they started hearing voices coming from above. Unsure what to expect, Hera grabber her handaxe. As they got closer, they met another group going down towards the dungeon. It was four people, and the one leading them was wearing what looked like a plate mail and carried a longsword on his waist.

"Oh, Hello there. Are you guys the ones who opened the entrance this time?" the man asked.

"Yep, that was us. What do you mean about this time?" Blue replied.

Leo turned around to the controller, "Can you not go around telling everyone what we did? We have no idea who they are and what they want!" he turned towards the man, "No offense, but we don't know you."

"None taken. Although it's pretty hard for someone to try something this close to the city, or in the first layer for that matter, you do need to be careful," the man said with a warm smile. He looked towards Hera's group and made a motion for his party to go back, "Since we are close to the entrance, it's easier to go up. This seems a bit too tight for two sets of people."

Going back to the entrance, the groups introduced themselves. The man in plate armor was called Ryan. He had dark hair, a goatee stubble, and he was a fighter. The mage behind him was a beautiful Japanese woman with long black hair with blue tips. She wore a dark blue overcoat with a simple design and a pair of knee-high boots. Her name was Jane.

To the mage's side, there was a tall man with dark bags under his green eyes. His name was Peter, and he wore a grey hoddie filled with several colored stains. He was clearly annoyed with the introduction. Behind them, an archer was wearing a green cloak and leather armor. Looking at her was the same as looking at a fantasy book. She introduced herself as Felicity but never took off the hood of the cloak, the only thing Hera could see of her appearance was the sun-bleached curly hair.

"If you don't mind me asking. Are you new here, or did you came to do a quest?" Ryan asked.

"We were doing the dungeon quest, but here in Brinefront we are new, why?" Alex replied, raising one eyebrow.

"Oh, sorry. It's part of our quest, you see. We were tasked to search the books here and bring back pictures of the blueprints and the things we find inside there," Ryan replied.

"Pictures?!" Bonnie shouted with wide eyes.

"Yeah, why?" Jane crossed her arms while staring at Bonnie.

"No, sorry... we could have taken pictures. Why didn't I think of that?" the researcher mumbled to herself.

"Ignore her. She is freaking out for not thinking about something so obvious," she turned towards Bonnie, "If you want, we can go back there and take pictures. I wouldn't mind finishing the quest again."

"Well, you can, but not today. This dungeon has a daily limit," Ryan said.

"What?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, that's why not many people come here. Aside from being a big place with a lot of backtracking, you can do this dungeon only once a day, and three times a week. Then you have to wait for the reset. You guys got lucky. Usually, the first run after a reset receives a bonus reward, something like 1 000 extra gold in this case."

"You said come here, is there another dungeon people go to?" Blue asked.

"Oh yeah, there is the Frog Valley to the south or the Ant Burrow to the north. Both are way more efficient places to farm levels."

"How so?" Leo asked.

"Well, for one, they are quicker. You took what? Two or three hours to finish this one? A first-time party can complete the Ant Burrow in one hour at most. A group that is used to it can do it in half an hour, and they get at least 1 000 gold per run just for the reward. You can also do 20 runs on it before the daily reset," Ryan explained.

"Really? Where is that one again?" Bonnie asked.

"To the north of the city, you can either use the main gate or ask permission to use the north guard exit. You should buy a dungeon map. They are a bit pricey, but it is better than running around searching for the dungeons."

"Thanks! I'll try to get one," Bonnie replied.

"Unless all of your group can use spells or deal elemental damage. You should stay away from the Burrow. The ants are nearly impossible to kill with physical attacks. Go to the frog valley. You can only do it five times a day, but its much safer, and the rewards are not so bad," Jane said.

Hera nodded, "We'll keep that in mind, thank you."

"No problems, the Ruby Dragons are always here to help," Ryan said proudly, showing a red dragon painted in his armor.

"Is that your organization?" Alex asked.

"No, we are all from different ones. This is just the name of our party. Don't you guys have a party name?"

Hera and her friends shook her head.

"Oh, well, you should! That way your group can start having some renown. People might even begin to request you guys for quests. That's how we got this one," Ryan opened a big smile, but the rest of his group seemed less enthusiastic about the name.

Saying their farewells, Ryan and his group left towards the dungeon. Hera and the group decided to rest a bit before going back to town. They spent almost five hours inside there, and there was still a two-hour walk back. Before anything Bonnie went down towards the dungeon, she came back a few minutes later confirming that she wasn't able to enter the dungeon.

They grabbed the ration they had bought and had a meal while looking at the area, Leo kept cycling his mana using the ruins and rest kept discussing spell ideas, after around half an hour they wanted to go to the town. However, Leo felt he was close to something, so they waited around some more. They all cycled their mana, taking advantage of the surrounding area.

Another hour passed before Leo gasped, saying he had unlocked his mana stat. Now all they needed to do was start working on some spells. Getting ready to leave, the group climbed out of the crater, heading towards the road. The moment they left the forest, a honeyed voice came from the path.

"Oh, it seems even you found this place."

Looking towards who was speaking, Hera saw a familiar dark-haired woman with chestnut skin and a red bindi between her eyes.

"Anaya, you bitch!" Blue yelled, walking towards the woman.