A few days before Kevin woke up from his mana deprivation coma, the six other Heroes (not including Wakanda, who had been excommunicated) were recuperating from the boss battle they had fought with the 9th floor boss.

Having cleared the floors above them as well as the floor they were on, the currently accepted Heroes (minus Kevin) continued to delve deep into the dungeon. Despite this being their first foray into the bizarre and sometimes nonsensical underground realm that they were currently in, they were making impressive headway. Had they learned that The Dungeon’s top ten monster-filled floors had been repeatedly shuffled over the course of the past few months and made far, far easier they would have been terrified of what they might have faced had they come sooner, not that they could have, of course.

They fought through the 1st through the 9th floors and were now at the cusp of reaching the 10th. Despite having to work together to get this far, they still barely trusted each other; but at the very least they trusted each other more than they trusted Kevin. The banter between them was light, but there was one thing that they had all noticed that no one had spoken about until now.

It was not the absolutely massive scale of the dungeon floors, nor was it the fact that matter and energy was being created and potentially destroyed in this place. No, it was something far odder, at least in their eyes.

“So, are we going to talk about the other people we have seen down here?” Jesus Rojo Mendoza commented.

“Yeah, I thought it was kind of strange too.” replied Alice Angelica Wordsworth.

“How so? They were just ordinary people, so what was off about them?” asked Kristof Amadeus Handel.

Jesus shook his head. “There are no other reports of dungeon entrances appearing anywhere else! So, then, how are they getting in here? It is strange enough to see other people here, but seeing the monsters not fight with them in the same way they fought with us raises another issue. Why are the monsters being so… lazy… with them and so difficult with us?”

“Yes, that is certainly confusing and alarming. Perhaps there are other entrances that have appeared elsewhere, and they all lead to this one dungeon? But even if that were the case, how far a walk would it be for them? We have already confirmed that no animals or plants aside from humans can enter, and yet if these people walked all the way to where we are, how long would that take?” Nagato Yamagishi added.

There was an awkwardly long pause as the 6 Heroes walked down the winding stairs to the 10th floor. By now they had already realized that there were likely floors below this next one, but how far The Dungeon descended was anyone’s guess. As they reached the bottom of the stairs and looked out onto the 10th floor, they stood in amazement at the sight of what appeared to be a fully functioning settlement instead of a dungeon floor.

Nagato turned to the others and asked a question that they all had.

“Did we accidentally leave the dungeon?”

The party advanced cautiously towards the bustling town and were shocked to see that there were no monsters or undead there, just plain and ordinary humans. The second thing that shocked them were the number of flags flying one above the other. The lower flags were unknown to them, but the flag that was above them all set off alarm bells. That was because said higher flag was that of the Darksol Empire. They, the people meant to crush the evil empire, had unknowingly strayed into hostile territory.

“We need to leave! Now!” Pierre Louis Duchamp shouted, but before they could try and climb the steps the stairway vanished, leaving only the rocky surface that they had come to know during their expedition into The Dungeon.

“Shit! Now what?!” Pierre shouted, which caught the attention of the guards at the entrance to the settlement.

The guards casually strolled up to the panicking Heroes and, after figuring out their problem, let out a jovial laugh.

“Let me guess; the stairwell vanished? Don’t worry, it happens to everyone eventually. It probably has appeared again at one of the other places it pops up at from time to time. If not, then you will just have to wait an hour or so before it appears again. The person that runs The Dungeon sometimes does that to keep people from being caught up in the renovations and modifications. Come with us. As those who made it this far, we might as well reward you for doing so. It isn’t easy to reach this point, let alone make it here intact. Thank Kain for potions, am I right?”

“You… you aren’t going to try and kill us?” Vladimir Grigori Makarov asked hesitantly.

“Why would we? Even if you were those Heroes summoned by the Luminas Church it wouldn’t matter in the slightest. As per Kain’s orders; as long as someone makes it here, they are to be treated cordially unless they act out and are deserving of it. You aren’t murderers, thieves, vandals or rapists, are you?”

“But we are the Heroes…” Jesus stated.

“So what? Look, it takes a special kind of person to get down here and seeing as you didn’t have the luxury of having the mobs and bosses try very, very hard not to kill you then you are deserving of being here. Stay a while, stock up on supplies, get some rest and relaxation and prepare for the next floor. Just a heads-up though; no one likes the 10th floor. The water level is difficult as all hell and most people just can’t cut it.”

The guards casually walked back to their posts and stood at attention, almost as if to show the Heroes that they need not have any anything to fear.

“Well, one small step it is then.” Alice commented before trying to boss one of the other Heroes into taking that ‘one small step’ for her.

…

The inside of the settlement was amazing. It was a far cry from the monastery; there were electric lights, working indoor plumbing and air conditioning and food not to dissimilar from that a 20th century 1st world citizen might find appetizing. In fact…

“It’s sooooooooo good!” Alice said through her stuffed mouth as tears streamed down her face.

“I know, right?” Kristof said in between bites of his meal.

“I can’t get enough!” Vladimir yelled as he bit down into a hamburger.

“I hate these people for being capitalist bastards, but this food is amazing!” Jesus moaned as he savored the food before him.

“Finally!” Nagato screamed as he beheld his meal, barely able to stop himself from digging in. “Finally I can have rice!”

“Yes! Yes! Yes! So delicious! I don’t think I can ever tolerate the swill at the monastery ever again!” Pierre moaned with delight.

“Easy there! The food isn’t going anywhere, and no one is going to take it from you, so please calm down and stop bothering the other diners.” the head chef behind the counter of the restaurant they were at remarked.

“Sorry!” the 6 Heroes said all at once.

After finishing their meals, the Heroes searched for an inn to stay at. They quickly found one and made their reservations. As soon as they entered their individual rooms, they nearly started crying again to see beds not made with poor quality (by 20th century standards) cloth and straw or feather stuffing, but what all of them recognized as modern beds.

But before they could use them, they remembered that they were all asked by the inn staff to go to a barber’s shop and take a long bath. The inn didn’t want a bedbug infestation from the ‘Light Lands’ to pop up in their inn and force them to call an exterminator, and they also did not want to have to bill the new guests extra for ‘Bedbug Insurance’.

“So, is there a public bathhouse we can use?” Nagato asked with anticipation as the party of distrusting Heroes talked with the front desk.

He got his answer and ran towards the public baths like the devil himself was on his heels, with the other Heroes following close behind. None of them, even Nagato who was a Japanese native, had been to a natural hot spring before.

…

The next day was spent spending the money they had gathered from dead mobs and treasure chests on things like Bags of Holding, potions, alchemical bombs, repairs to their weapons and armor, extra rations and more. At the public baths they had been smart and had each asked for advice on the true 10th floor. However, since they still barely trusted each other, they each spent their own private pocket change, often getting the same information as the others and being none the wiser.

Despite having to work together, there had still been some issues during their initial first few weeks, and those issues still lingered as distrust and suspicion. Naturally, none of them intended to share the intel they had gained, and thus they each spent far more than was needed to ultimately get the same basic knowledge that they all now knew.

The day after that, they found the next flight of stairs and descended into the aptly named ‘Water Level’ or, using the more official name, The Deepwater Temple. They figured it would be easier than was told. They figured the 10th floor boss, the Naga Queen, would be a cakewalk like all the others were. They figured that they were more than prepared to carry each other when the others in their group inevitably held them back.

However, like Illidan Stormrage had once said; they were not prepared. They woefully underestimated how evil water levels could be. If they had ever played ‘Ocarina of Time’, they might have been more cautious. The puzzles in the previous floors were child’s play compared to what was on this floor.

This floor was the place where people were broken and remade; if they wanted to even get to the Naga Queen, they would have to use everything they had learned from the gimmicks on the floors above. Unlike the citizens of Darksol and its ‘allies’, they did not have the luxury of The Dungeon not trying obscenely hard not to kill them.

Like it was stated before; they, like so many others before and after them, were not prepared.