The next day they woke up to a delicious early breakfast made by Mili. The eagerly ate their breakfast, said their goodbyes and made their way to the dungeon. The looming tower was easy to see so making their way was no problem, they took one of the main streets to avoid having to travel through the maze of alleys. The city was humongous, probably bigger than any city back home. He asked about the inhabitants, there were nearly thirty million people living in the city, that was an outrageous amount. He wondered how they fed and housed them all. Floris explained to him that the farms and farmers here were extremely high level and with the aid of magicians they could harvest an entire season's worth of food in a week. Keeping the soil fertile cost a lot of magic power but the royal family invested in it and made sure there was enough food to sustain the kingdom.

Jace nodded and asked some more specifics while they traveled to the dungeon. After about an hour of travel they finally reached their destination. The entrance of the tower was crowded but not because of the people that wanted to enter. The plaza in front of the dungeon was filled with merchants and adventurers looking for a group to join. Various types of wares were offered and sold to the dungeon hopefuls. Jace had never seen so many people in a single area before, it made him slightly nauseous. They pushed their way through the crowd, having to tear themselves from the grasps of some overly eager merchants.

They stood in front of the entrance the dark grey stone looming so far overhead that it feeled to Jace the thing might topple over and crush half the city. It was perhaps a mile in diameter, an absurd size. But the length, the length was straight up impossible. It had to be tens of kilometers high, he couldn’t even see the top. He shook his amazement off and stepped under the arc, to his surprise entry wasn’t regulated, people could enter when they please. Any groups that entered would be sent to the highest floor they had cleared. It seemed Jace and the rest would have to work their way up from the others. He glanced back at his group. “Last minute equipment check, then we enter.”

They nodded to him and meticulously tested the edges of their weapons and checked each other’s armour to make sure they sat well and wouldn’t clinch movement. At the moment all of them were still equipped in hardened leather. Some other adventurers were laughing and pointing at them, he heard whispers of amateurs but he ignored them. Those that spoke had the air of thugs and gangsters around them, the ones he took seriously had an air of soldiers and mercenaries around them. He nodded respectfully towards those, receiving a polite nod in return.

Once everyone was done with their check-up he took the time to check each of them once more just in case. When he felt everything was up to standard he looked over his group. Weira stood there relaxed, at ease with the fight ahead. Floris was keeping his cool but seemed a little twitchy, Jerard was nervous and kept fondling his sword. Qyra kept wiping her hands on her armour, Plip surprisingly did not seem even remotely worried, he stood ready and at ease similar to Jace. Jace smiled at the youngest of the group, before he turned to the rest. “Me and Floris up front, Jerard a step to the right and a step behind Floris, Weira the same to my left. Qyra in between the two and Plip will take up the rear. Questions?”

They shook their head, Jace nodded and rolled his shoulders. “Lets to this!”

He stepped into the arch and after a wobble and some slight motion sickness he found himself in a simple cave system. “Shields up!” He raised his shield and Floris stepped next to him and did the same, the rest took their positions and they made their way forward. Jace set a decent pace he was well aware that they were currently fighting level ten opponents which would not be much of a threat to his group. He made sure to keep the group on their toes however, he had done some asking around and the dungeon had no traps of any kind. It was purely monster based. Which suited him just fine, it would help to raise his combat skills.

The first five floors were a type of creature called Krittlings, basically kobolds with fur and some weird stone plate natural armour. The first group charged at them and were torn through with ease. The rest of the first layer they swept through without issue, the boss was a slightly larger version. The following layers were the same, the Krittlings got a little stronger but it was no issue to them.The pattern didn’t change till they reached level seventy, this floor was filled with ogres. Unarmed and without a lot of combat experience. But their sheer power and the fact that sometimes they faced more than one at once made it a difficult fight all the same.

Jace stood over the body of the an ogre breathing heavily. They had just beaten the boss, a larger ogre armed with a club with two of its sidekicks. He had kept the boss busy, focusing solely on defense while Weira fought one of its sidekicks. Floris and his team took down the other ogre after a while and then switched to the one Weira was fighting. They then teamed up to beat the boss. Its skin was thick and it took a good bit of mana edge use to get through it. The constant concentration required a good bit of effort and even though clearing the previous floors had been easy they had been in the dungeon for over eight hours now. He nodded at the group and they left. It would take some time for them to reach the level needed to clear this floor on their own, Jace figured it would take at least a month or three. Fighting that boss and its two sidekicks alone would be a pain in the ass for anyone.

Floris glanced at him and stroked his chin, “For the title we need to clear this floor by ourselves don’t we? I heard the dungeon here had a higher difficulty compared to the ones further out, but to have a floor filled with ogre’s and the boss being a stronger one with two sidekicks is a bit much. Are you sure it’s possible to clear it by oneself?”

Jace nodded and stretched his sore muscles, “It’s possible, by my estimates it will take around three months before any of us can solo this floor. The money we earn on this floor should be enough to keep us afloat, the ogre dropped parts sell decently. Also check your mastery.”

Floris frowned but did as asked and checked his status, he gasped in surprise and stared at Jace. “Did you know this would happen.”

Jace grinned at him, “Of course I did, how do you think we would be able to keep up with levels otherwise.”

Floris nodded and thought for a second. “My mastery went up a whole four levels in one day, I’ve now broken through to intermediate. Taking the time to work on our mastery like this would be well worth the time, especially if you count in the title bonus. Three months is a long time though…”

Jace shook his head and put a hand on his shoulder, “Think about it Floris, each of these titles you earn you gains you twenty vitality. You gain twenty years of life for three months of work. In my opinion that makes this easily worth it.”

Floris’s eyes widened, “I hadn’t even thought about the effect of the titles on vitality. So while we might gain power at a much slower rate compared to others, our path in the end will be longer and we will end up stronger. So it’s an issue of speed over quality, I can’t believe this isn’t common knowledge.”

Jace shook his head. “You’re thinking too much, I’m pretty sure that most nobles and people in the know will have gained the titles at least upto level ninety. It’s probably why the nobles live as long as they do. Once you reach the hundred though it will get a lot more difficult. How many people have the patience to work a year or more to get a handfull of stats in each attribute. Within that same year others could have gained perhaps a hundred levels if they work hard. People are simple creatures, while living long is good and something most people would want. Living much longer than everyone around you? Not many people have the heart to do it.”

Floris frowned, “I think greed would be an issue, people want to live longer especially those who pursue immortality and their ilk. There has to be more to it than that, I wonder if the barrier is truly so difficult that most people stop there.”

Jace grinned, “Only one way to find out!”

Floris smiled back at him, “True.”

They made their way back to the inn, they sold their drops and earned enough to pay for repairs, maintenance, supplies, food and the inn. Over the next month they kept tackling the floor as a group. They got better in combat, their skills, especially for the younger adventurers, saw a quick grow. Their masteries soon touched upon the advanced tier. Weira had broken through to the veteran tier as had Jace in shield mastery. His sword mastery lingered at advanced level nine but would soon follow.

Floris and his group had unanimously decided to at least take the path of mastery till they hit the barrier, they would see about continuing on it or not after that. Jace and Weira were dead set on following the path through to the end. Even if Weira could now save up money to fix her condition, apparently even her muteness was fixable. While she did want to fix that she did not want to stop walking the path both had chosen. Despite its difficulties. Jace was the same, he could be utterly stubborn when it came to things like this.

Another month passed and they started clearing the layer in smaller groups, they kept mixing and matching their partners but they now did it in groups of three. Next step would be in pairs till they finally switched to doing it by themselves. Half way through the second month they switched to pairs. The Jerard and Qyra were gaining more confidence in their fighting prowess as the month continued, Jerard’s moves with his greatsword had gained a fluidity he used the weight of his sword to his advantage and let his swings and momentum carry him out of his enemies strikes while he landed his own. Offense and defense in one.

Qyra on the other hand had greatly increased her casting speed and had started learning a whole variety of new spells. When she realised she could user her mana and imaginations to create somewhat crude versions of existing spells she started copying Jace and Weira and created spells of her own. She had taken over Weira’s needle spell without much issue. She told them that her glyph focused spells were well out of her reach however. That was immensely complex and not something just anyone would be able to do. Floris had gained solidity, Jace had no other word for it. There was a certain trust that built up having the young man next to you. A certainty that you would not get hit from whatever side he was defending, his group would make a fearsome adventurer party if they kept growing as they did.

Plip however, the youngman was a prodigy. No other way about it, the man had already reached veteran rank with his bow. He released arrows within half a second after firing one. Jace had never seen the young man entirely miss his target. Sometimes he would hit an ogre on the cheek instead of in the eye, but those occasions were rare. The fourteen year old had a focus to him that bordered on the psychotic. Plip had started to open up, unlike the others of his team he had not been born in the village but had arrived later, an orphan like Jace himself. Floris’s parents had taken him in at the age of eleven and raised him as their own. He looked up to Floris as a real brother but they were fundamentally different people.

Jace clicked with the boy, he felt at ease around him and could somewhat tell what the silent young man thought most of the time. The archer reminded him of a younger version of himself, the boy had witnessed war. He was sure of it, there was a decisiveness to his actions that a normal person of his age shouldn’t have. Jace having been a soldier of himself could smell it on him. Even if Plip slightly unnerved the others, the two grew to be close over the months. Jace started treating him like his little brother, another kid from the orphanage.

Weira had gotten closer to Qyra, the two being the only women on the team hung out a lot. All of them in fact had become vast friends. You couldn’t fight together for months on end and not grow closer after all. It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine, they had their arguments. As any people would have living in such proximity to each other over time. Yet it never got out of hand and they always made up.

They had grown, but it was becoming time for them to tackle this dungeon on their own. Jace would be lying if he said he wasn’t worried about the others. Plip and Weira wouldn’t have much of an issue. But the others might still make a mistake, despite their improvement. Only time would tell, he walked in separately. One last look at his friends. He wondered how many would come out again, he sincerely hoped they all would.