Chapter 145- Entering the New Dungeon

[Luna POV]

After the first day on the road, not much happened.  On the third day we noticed that it was getting colder and there were patches of snow here and there.

“You know, this is the first time I’m actually running into snow that isn’t inside a dungeon.” (Luna)

“Really nya?” (Mio)

“Yeah.  After living in the Beast Kingdom for all my life, only being it the Celestia Kingdom for a relatively short time, and being in the warmer parts of the Demon Empire, I haven’t really had the chance to be around it.  The only experience I have with it was from one or two floors in a dungeon.” (Luna)

“That makes sense nya.  The beast kingdom is always warm.  I don’t know much about the Celestia Kingdom since I’ve only ever been there once and that was for my S-rank promotion nya.” (Mio)

“Who was the one that sponsored you for S-rank?” (Velvet)

“That old sword saint that died a few years ago.  He was a nice person who always gave me food.  He was also the one that first gave me those birds that I bought from you.  I kind of miss him nya.” (Mio)

We continued on in silence for a few minutes.  During those few minutes, the place we were heading started to be seen in the distance.

“We’re almost there.” (Luna)

“To think we travelled a week in three days.  Space magic is something else nya.” (Mio)

“Yeah, it beats travelling two week’s distance in two days.  That’s really tiring.” (Luna)

“Do I even want to knyow?” (Mio)

“I can tell you later if you want.” (Luna)

“That’s fine nya.” (Mio)

I folded space one more time and we ended up right next to the building that was here.  The building was made of stone and seemed a bit too small to be a branch of the guild.  We went up to the quickly made wooden door and entered to find a stairway leading down.

“I wonder what this is all about?” (Soleil)

We all headed down the stairs and found a large open space at the bottom.  Inside the space were people sitting at tables or behind a counter and chatting or drinking.  When we entered the room several people turned to look at us then turned away, uninterested.  We walked up to one of the people behind the desk to report our business.

“Hello, this is the guild branch for that new dungeon, right?” (Luna)

“Yes, though if you are here to dive into the dungeon, I regret to inform you that we still need to wait for the team that the guild master is sending before allowing other adventurers to do so.”

“That’s fine since we are the people she sent.” I said as I handed over the letter that Ibuki gave us.

The receptionist lady’s eyes widened a bit in surprise as she took the letter and read it.

“She sent three S-ranks!?”

The receptionist’s yell caused everyone in the room to look at us in surprise.  Once they all calmed down, the room filled with whispers.  This cause me to feel slightly annoyed which must have shown on my face.

“Ah.  My apologies.”

“*Sigh*  It’s fine, is there anything we need to know before we head into the dungeon?” (Luna)

“We’ve sent a few teams into the first floor and found that it is pretty much the same as most dungeon first floors with extremely weak monsters and such.  The only difference is that it is very big.”

“Do you have any simple maps for what has been explored?” (Luna)

“Yes, but they aren’t very good.”

“That’s fine, we’ll be making some as we go anyway.” (Luna)

She then handed me a few pieces of paper with badly drawn pictures on them.

“Thank you.  Now, tell us where the entrance is, and we’ll start.” (Luna)

“Right this way.”

She led us to a heavy stone door which needed two people to open.  Once it was open, all we saw was a doorway of complete darkness that even night vision skills had a hard time dealing with.

“What’s with the entrance?” (Velvet)

“This is what all new dungeon entrances look like.  Once it’s cleared for the first time this will disappear.”

“Are you all ready?” (Luna)

They all nodded their heads and I entered the door first.  The darkness opened the way like a curtain then closed again when we all were inside.

‘Tamamo, so you know why it’s like that?’

{Hmmm.  Not really, you’d have to ask Grey about it, sorry.}

‘It’s fine, you don’t need to apologize.’

We headed deeper inside for a few minutes before I stopped the group.

“Let me make a map first.” (Luna)

I sat down on the floor and crossed my legs, then I created an ice table in front of me to write on.  I pulled out a large paper from my inventory and placed my hand on top of it, then I spread my mana to every inch of the first floor and used my space magic.  After I did that and started to see the layout of the floor, I channeled mana into the paper in front of me and a map started to draw itself.

“Ooooh.  I’ve nyever seen the cartographer skill in action before nya.  It’s interesting.” (Mio)

“Mio, please don’t say anything, it’ll disrupt master’s concentration.” (Ophidia)

“Sorry nya.” (Mio)

It took several minutes for the map to finish itself and when it did, we were all surprised by just how large the first floor was.

“What are these darker spots nya?” (Mio)

“Areas of interest.  There is either a chest or some other kind of something there.  The places marked with ‘x’ are places that have more monsters and the place with the arrow is the entrance to the next floor.” (Luna)

“Wow nya.  Having you here is cheating.” (Mio)

“Mio, this is a warning for your mental wellbeing, any kind of common sense you have, get rid of it when you think about anything Luna does.” (Velvet)

“Says the person that is still barely holding on to hers.” (Luna)

“Big sis is right Velvet; you still haven’t completely gotten rid of yours.” (Soleil)

“Really?” (Velvet)

“Yeah, you still sometimes get surprised by what I do.” (Luna)

“Oh.” (Velvet)

“Nyahahahahahahahahahahahaha!  You’re all so fun.  So, are we going to go and collect everything of interest or just go to the next floor nya?” (Mio)

“Is that question even necessary, of course we’re going to collect everything.  We wouldn’t be adventurers if we didn’t.” (Luna)

“Nyahahahahahaha!  Oh, I have an idea, before we head to start collecting stuff, let’s go to one of the monster spots and I’ll show you how I fight since we haven’t done anything like that yet nya.” (Mio)

“Ok, let’s go then.” (Luna)

Like that, we headed off in the direction of some unsuspecting weak monsters whose worse nightmare was nicer than what was about to happen.

Chaos Realm:

Let me guess Grey, the darkness over the entrance is just for ambiance.

Grey: Absolutely.

I thought you would only do that in front of boss rooms.

Grey: I did at one point in time, but it got tiring to maintain thousands of them at the same time all over the world.

Ah, I get that, but I respect the dedication to video game references that only otherworlders and those that view everything from the outside understand.

Grey: Hahahahahahaha!  If there is one thing anyone should know about me, it's that I will always try to make as many references as I can, no matter how obscure they may be.  Heck, in one dungeon on one of the other continents, I put a door with a dragon claw key.

How long did it take for people to figure out that the answer to unlocking it was on the key itself?

Grey: It took three years.  Everyone was so sure that it was a trick and were too scared to actually try it because anytime someone failed, they were chased out of the dungeon by a rolling boulder.

You went all out with that one, huh?

Grey: Yeah, those were the days.  Now I'm just stuck doing paperwork all the damn time.  Like come on, why is there so much?  It never ends.