49 The first dungeon run

The dungeon was like a mountain of gray rock that protruded from the ground, it was surrounded by a wall that was by no means less impressive than the outer walls of Tursk with four gates that let one into a no man's land that was filled with adventures mingling, some even had set up stalls where they sold maps and goods useful in the dungeon at a premium, as Mike, Julie, Elina, Rebecca and Serina walked past the gate they attracted some attention, after all, a half ton wolf with three beauties would always attract attention, just not always the good kind.

As they walked towards the guild many brave individuals tried to talk with Julie, Elina and Rebecca, some of them tried to sell them stuff while most of them straight up was hitting on them, there were even a few women that talked with Mike and was seemingly hitting on him/trying to recruit him to their teams, but since he completely ignored them they quickly got the hint, the men that were after Elina, Rebecca and Julie however weren't so understanding

"Hey come on, it's just for a bit"

"Why don't you join our team instead of hanging with these losers?"

They kept trying to persuade the ladies to join them but soon said ladies lost their patience and after exchanging looks the three of them drew their weapons which caused the persistent men to back off with wry smiles on their faces, then finally the group made it to the entrance of the dungeon, it looked like a maw that opened up wide, the inside was dark without a light in sight, Mike gave a nod and spoke to no one in particular

"Well then, let's see what all the fuss is about"

A red light flashed in his eyes before he walked forwards into the dungeon with the rest following behind him, none of them lit any lights as they all could see perfectly well in the dark, when they were a good 500 meters into the dungeon the path split into two at a perfect 90 degree angle

"Let's go left"

"Okay"

Mike decided to go left and Julie agreed so the group went left, Mike felt a tingle down his spine and called out

"Elina, Rebecca… Form up on me"

""Yes master""

As they did the walls of the dungeon seemed to light up slightly before something bizarre happened, shadows of small humanoid figures formed from the light that seemed to shine inside the grey rock walls before the figures gradually got pushed out of the grey rock walls and landed on the ground before they opened their eyes and let out screams

"That is… Goblins?"

While Mike was confused momentarily Julie explained

"Of course, did you expect a dragon on the first floor?"

"... Guess not, well then let's end them"

""Yes master""

While they talked about five goblins spawned and ran towards them, Mike and the rest didn't feel threatened by this and made quick work of the goblins, then Mike walked over to one of the carcasses and stabbed it in the chest with the knife and dug out a small blue crystal as he drained its blood, then something happened again, the floor seemed to light up under the carcass before it slowly absorbed the carcass of the goblin again

"... Neat, that means we don't have to clean up after ourselves… Elina, Rebecca did you get some crystals?"

"Yes master I got one"

"What about you Rebecca?"

"I got three master"

"... Neat, put them in your pouches and then let's continue"

""Yes master""

The group continued walking deeper into the dungeon slaying goblins on the way, while they explored a mental map of the dungeon formed in Mike's head, he had always been good at dungeon crawlers and had even been called the human map by some of his friends in middle school, after about two hours of walking they had collected about 15 monster crystals, then when they turned a corner they could suddenly see light up ahead, there was a team of adventures that were sitting and waiting in front of a grand, imposing door.

Mike told the others to sheath their weapons before they walked closer to the waiting adventures, they were quickly spotted and one of the waiting adventures, a woman about 25 years old walked forwards to greet them while she spun a dagger around

"Hey there"

Mike greeted her back while looking at how she spun her dagger around

"Hey, what's happening here?"

The woman looked them over in response to Mike's question before she gave a sigh and asked

"You're new in the city, right?"

Mike gave a nod, then the woman gave a smile before she pointed behind her

"This is the first floor boss room, we are waiting for the boss to spawn"

Mike looked at the door before he drew the knife and began spinning it around mincing the women's movements perfectly, this surprised her a bit before she gave a chuckle and spoke

"I see you got some skill there, is there anything you want to ask?"

Mike gave a nod and asked

"How long does it take for the boss to respawn?"

"About an hour"

"I see… And how long have you guys been waiting?"

"Close to an hour now"

"Then do you mind if we take on the boss after you guys?"

The woman gave a smile before she shook her head

"It's a free city, do what you want"

"Thanks"

The woman returned to her group while Mike and the rest rested a little ways away from them, Mike leaned his back against the wall and closed his eyes to rest for a bit but then a sound woke him up and he quickly opened his eyes again and looked over towards the other group, the giant imposing door was opening, the group quickly walked inside the door while the woman from before looked back and gave Mike and the others a wave as the door closed again

"Well then… Let's move up in the queue"

The group waited for about an hour resting and eating some snacks until the giant door once again opened up, Mike and the rest got on their feet and walked past the giant door into the boss room, soon the door closed after them and then the room lit up, in the middle of the room stood five goblins and a single slightly bigger goblin that wielded a rusty broadsword, Mike gave a smile and asked Julie

"Julie do you mind if I kill these goblins?"

Julie gave a smile and patted Mike on the shoulder as she answered him

"No, go wild Mike we'll be right here waiting"

"Thanks"

Mike walked out form the group towards the goblins that already were charging at them, gradually he picked up speed and within moments he was in a full sprint, then seconds later he passed the first goblin while leaving a cut on its shoulder as he dodged around the next goblin before he kicked off the ground and stabbed the knife into the slightly larger goblin that was mid swing with his rusty broadsword, Mike was simply too fast for the goblins to handle

"[Drink]"

Before the bigger goblin could turn into a dried up corpse the other five goblins had all died, Mike turned back to the boss goblins corpse but before he could begin digging through its chest for a monster crystal it turned into dust in an instance before that dust suddenly condensed and formed a rock with the number '1' on it, Mike picked it up and put it in his pocket before he dug out five more monster crystals from the goblins and walked back to Julie and showed her the stone with the number '1' on it

"What's this?"

"That must be a stone of passage, from what I have heard it allows one to arrive directly at the boss room of the floor that's written on it"

"... Neat"

"Yeah, although it crumbles after one use so one use can sell them for a pretty good price"

"I see… Well then let's head to the 2nd floor"

"Sure"

A door had opened when Mike killed the boss goblin, past the door was a stairway that led downwards to the 2nd floor, on the 2nd floor however they weren't so lucky to find the boss room during the five hours they spent exploring, they did hoverer find a lot of ratmen, goblin sized men with long bald tails that proved to be about as much challenge as a goblin, only they used a little teamwork, thus when the sun slowly descend over the horizon Mike and the rest of the group walked out of the dungeon on foot with Serina walking after them, Mike collected all the monster crystals and counted them

"36 monster crystals… hopefully, these sell for a good price"

Along with the 36 monster crystals they had also gotten a single monster core which Mike and Julie had decided to give to Elina since she was behind in levels, but alas when she crushed it she didn't receive a new skill