“Let’s go, boy.”

“Woof!”

Just like many times before Roland and Agni sped through the now open lake of fire. In just a few minutes they were right in the middle. Thanks to Roland’s mapping system that allowed him to detect people along with monsters around here they were in almost no danger of being discovered.

Even if someone popped out now Roland would know it and just go to the other side. His map would inform him about any potential onlookers. The devices that were dug into the ground didn’t only enhance the map signal, they could actually record certain patterns. There was a limit to the memory space so Roland set it up to take a snapshot of any individual that was in the area.

After uploading this information into his armor or another mapping device in his workshop he could see the movement pattern of monsters depicted as moving circles. Everything was color coded as usual so it was easy to tell where the monsters walked through and which were the adventurers.

The dungeon monsters always had a set pattern that was only broken if a person appeared. Yet he was aiming more for the moving patterns of adventurers and used this information to get down the best timing of getting through this lake.

“Okay Agni, it’s your time to shine.”

“Awooo!”

The ruby wolf’s tail wagged around as he was waiting to sink his teeth into some monster flesh. The reward would be the high tier 2 monster mana crystal that now he was allowed to eat. Thus the duo of Runesmith and Wolf entered the passage that would soon guide them towards their usual grinding spot.

…

“Hey… get a move on already!”

“Wait… give me a minute… ugh…”

“Why did you go out drinking if you knew that we had work today?”

“Shit… I didn’t want none of this, that old bastard just shoved this on me…urp…”

“Hey! That’s disgusting, why didn’t you drink a potion!”

“Those are expensive, I can walk off this hangover in no time!”

“Oh really?”

A certain sibling duo was arguing right before entering the dungeon. One was a famous casanova and muscle brain named Armand and the other was the half-elven troublemaker, Lobelia. They were not alone as their group had three more people and all of them were high tier 2 class holders and gold ranked adventurers.

“Here have some water.”

“Ah that hits the spot, at least I know I can count on you, Jasmin.”

A woman with brown hair that was carrying a large bow on her back leaned in to give Armand a wooden water bottle. To the sides of the bottle, there were visible magical inscriptions. Even though the bottle wasn’t all that large Armand was still able to chug down on it for a bit before finally giving it back.

“You’re too easy on him Jasmin, you should let him suffer some more.”

“Screw you.”

Armand gave Lobelia a glare while trying to straighten out. Even though he was literally carried out of the whorehouse an hour ago his stats and skills allowed him to sober up quite fast. The two men that were forced with this task were standing in the front. One looked to be a stocky-looking shield warrior of the dwarven variety while the other was quite large and green.

“Korgak think Arm-and should stop acting like child.”

“Haha, did you hear that, get up and let's move on you pansy!”

“Aye, move it ye whoreson.”

The dwarf didn’t look to happy about having to move out this early in the morning.

“Shut up all of you and you the most Wedamir, I know you’ve drunk at least as much as me.”

“Aye, but ah not acting lik' a lassie lik' ye”

The group started laughing while Armand tried to stabilize his legs. The world was still spinning but slowly everything was returning to him. Wedamir was a dwarf so even though he reeked of cheap booze as well, he was already mostly sober and ready for some action.

“Okay, while the idiot recovers how about we discuss this mission? Don’t you think that it's a bit strange that the guild master gathered us all up? What could there be down there that requires five gold rank adventurers?”

“Korgak don’t care.”

With a quick reply, the half-orc placed his oversized finger into his nose and started digging. Lobelia narrowed her eyes and turned to the potentially only sane person in this group of five that was the main tracker, Jasmine.

“I’ve heard that there were more people vanishing than usual, think it was mostly around the large chasm area which we are supposed to examine.”

Lobelia nodded while thinking back to the way they were given the mission. First of all, it was strange that it wasn’t an official one. The guild master forced them to take this special mission and even promised some nice rewards which she could not ignore. In reality, she was the reason Armand was even on the case as no one else would probably know where he was getting drunk at.

“Could dark adventurers be involved?”

She asked while prodding Jasmine for answers. Dark adventurers was a nickname for people that worked for the guild but also attacked other members like bandits. These didn’t always have roots in the thieves guild but were more common than most of the citizens realized.

“That’s a possibility but would we even know when we got there? I think the guild master would have mentioned something, I don’t think a dark adventurer would attack us.”

“You’re probably right, then the other option is… a rare monster or a zone boss has appeared?”

“That’s more likely, we should be careful if it's a boss then it could be closer to tier 3…”

Jasmine and Lobelia nodded at each other after coming to a consensus. Sometimes in dungeons, rare monsters with enhanced abilities and intellect would randomly appear. They came in all shapes and sizes but one thing was clear, they were troublesome.

It wouldn’t be strange if adventurers that were used to the lower level tier 2 monsters were killed by a rare spawn or a zone boss. The first type was mostly weaker but its unique characteristic was that it could move through the entire dungeon region it appeared in. The zone boss on the other hand acted more similar to a level boss and it stuck to a certain area it spawned in.

“If all the disappearances occurred at the chasm then it might be a zone boss, we’ll have to be careful.”

“I agree, no use losing our lives over it but on the other hand…”

Jasmine wanted to give out a sigh while looking at Lobelia that had sparkles in her eyes. It was clear that she was thinking about the potential rewards. If it was a rare high level tier 2 boss then it would probably drop some valuable rewards. The bodies of those monsters were worth a lot and the higher the tier of the monster the more the guild would pay up as well. It was a quick way for them to get rich but also a fast way of perishing.

“Hah, why do you look so glum, don’t worry I value my life more than some gold coins.”

“I’ll remember that.”

The two women jointly nodded while going toward the two arguing men. Wedamir and Armand had a short history with each other as they were at a similar level. Both of them had a few run-ins with one another even outside the city as they didn’t really have their own party. They were skillful and young but this also brought along bravado that sometimes got them in trouble.

“Are you girls done bickering?”

“Yeah, yeah…stop shouting.”

Armand cracked his neck while leaning away from the tree. While he wasn’t in the best condition he knew that before they reached the lower levels his recovery skills would kick in. Finally, the group of five descended towards the dungeon. It was early in the day but even now some people were coming in and out through the entrance.

Yet people of the races still usually followed the day and night cycle. Before midnight most of them would return home to rest which made the trek down into the lower levels a bit more troublesome. With fewer adventurers to clear out the monsters, the party of five had to contend with the trash mobs being everywhere.

“This sucks, those tier 1 mana stones won’t even be enough for one night with sweet Tanita.”

Armand grumbled while looking at the nail-sized mana stone that flew out of the defeated monster.

“Wasn’t it Katerina last week?”

“Hah, you're a woman, you wouldn’t understand.”

Lobelia’s brows furrowed while Armand shook his head side to side and shrugged.

“I don’t even want to know, let's just get this over with…”

The others nodded and soon enough they were on the tenth level. Luckily for them, the boss chamber was already open and they didn’t need to waste more time killing low level beasts. After passing through it they arrived at the smoldering hot lava area that would usually make them sweat. Yet they had already spent enough time here to gain heat resistance skills that alleviated the stuffy environment.

“Nothing seems to be out of place here at least.”

While the men of the party were lazily going out of the boss room Lobelia used her enhanced senses to look into the distance. There she could spot the usual salamander monsters crawling out of the lava puddles as per usual. A couple of other adventurers were also here and they were engaging those monsters in battle.

“Hm…”

“Is something wrong?”

“I’m not sure… but aren’t there usually more monsters in this area?”

Jasmine asked while Lobelia slowly replied while looking around. Usually, at this time of the day, the monsters would have managed to respawn. It was somewhat of a cycle that the dungeon went through on a daily basis. Adventurers would arrive in the morning to kill a large portion of the beasts. Their count would go down and only when they returned back in the morning would their numbers be restored.

“Could the zone boss be a salamander type? It could be able to summon the other monsters to its aid…”

“If that is true then we might need more people.”

Lobelia clicked her tongue in annoyance after making this realization. The group of five was more than enough to handle an upper tier 2 monster but that was only if it was by itself. Some monsters were capable of using other dungeon creatures as their minions. They were sort of commander types that the other monsters needed to listen to.

“It could be troublesome if it possesses intelligence but isn't the area it occupies strange? Wouldn’t a salamander type be more suited for the lake?”

“Hey what are you two doing, we are going to leave you two behind.”

Before Lobelia could reply to Jasmine's question she was hollered over by Armand who was impatiently stomping towards their destination. The trip toward their destination wouldn’t be that easy and they might even have to camp out for the night. There were several save spots for that occasion and Korgak was stuck lugging a large backpack with a tent inside.

Their trip continued and while the men weren’t too concerned about the diminished number of monsters the two women were. The closer they got to their destination the fewer of them appeared and soon even the usual groups of adventurers were nowhere to be seen.

“I don’t like this, it’s too quiet…”

“It is, isn’t it?”

Armand asked while leaning up against a rocky wall, they were at the entrance of the underground mountain path. They were tasked with examining this location and needed to get through it.

“So you’ve finally realized it?”

“Do you think I’m stupid or something?”

“Was that a rhetorical question?”

Lobelia watched as a large vein formed on Armand’s forehead but to her surprise, he didn’t try to argue. At least in situations like this, he knew when to shut up and get it together. Wedamir, who would be the tank in any RPG adventurer party, moved to the front while Korgak held together the backline to protect the vulnerable archers in the middle. Armand remained a bit in the front but somewhere closer to the women of the group.

While not many people went through this path it wasn’t supposed to be this empty. Sometimes slug or worm-type monsters crawled out from the mountain or the chasm to attack people. The parts from these could be used for potions and tinctures so there was a reason to go through here besides evading the lava lake for large parties.

They slowly made their way through the path. Lobelia along with Jasmine was sure to activate their tracking and detection skills but to no avail.

“This is really strange…”

“What is?”

The party stopped while Armand asked Jasmine a question after she spoke up.

“I can’t feel any monsters… it’s as if they are all dead.”

“Is that a bad thing? That’s one less problem for us.”

“I don’t know, normally I should be able to feel the presence of far away monsters, the dungeon should be swarming with them but now I can’t feel anything at all…”

Lobelia nodded as she also wasn’t picking up anything with her skills. While she wasn’t as good of a tracker as Jasmine here she didn’t fall that much behind. There weren’t that many ways of explaining the disappearance of monsters. Either they were moved somewhere or someone killed them and they weren’t able to respawn.

“If it’s a zone boss that can attract other monsters then this might be troublesome, it might be guiding a large chunk of them through the dungeon but if it's not on this side then …”

The adventurers nodded at each other and picked up their pace. With the monsters missing from this area there was only one explanation. They must have been moved by something and if they weren’t at the side they entered through then they had to have moved to the other. This path was a one-way street that brought them to the other side of the lava lake and that’s where they were suspecting the boss would be.

Yet even when they were rushing they still remained wary of their surroundings. Each of them was an experienced gold rank adventurer. They had all gone through situations where things backfired on them. Even if it seemed that everything was alright there was always a chance of an ambush waiting for them.

“Wait, there is something there… watch out.”

“Aye!”

Jasmine was the first one to spot this oddity. A strange feeling washed over her when they passed through an unsuspecting part of this pathway. Thanks to her experience she knew that this feeling was always followed by something. This time around this something turned out to be a spear tip rushing through the rock wall.

Luckily Wedamir reacted fast enough to bounce it back with the help of his heavy shield. This wasn’t all as the blade of his halberd managed to sever the limb that was holding onto the spear. To everyone's surprise, it belonged to a creature that they had not expected to see here.

“Watch out, that’s not a Fiery Skeleton!”

At first glance, it looked to be similar to the skeletal monsters on the upper levels but the way it moved was different. The fire that was coming from its eye sockets also covered its hands to enhance the power of its weapon. The unexpected blazing skeleton wasn’t their only problem, the bigger issue was that it was not the only one here.

“How are they coming through the walls?”

The party of five quickly found itself surrounded by a swarm of flaming skeletons. None of them could use high level analyzing skills but both Jasmine and Lobelia had threat detection skills. Both of them knew that each one of these was a lower level tier 2 monster.

“It must be some kind of illusion spell… this might be the reason why I wasn’t able to detect their presence…”

Jasmine shouted out while pulling the string of her bow. The quickly notched arrow made its way towards one of the skeletal enemies but even though it was able to explode its head in one hit, the fallen monster was quickly replaced by another.

“Shit, they got us…”

Armand shouted while preparing for battle. They were clearly outnumbered and the limited space they could move in was detrimental to their victory. With weapons and fists raised the group of five gave out a battle shout and the battle for survival began.