Dungeons are the start of adventures and a source of income for many aspiring adventurers. Becoming an adventurer takes a lot of effort. There needs to be a way to train up those fledgling adventurers.
That is why beginner dungeons are highly sought after. By taking control of a dungeon and using it to train adventurers any organization is almost guaranteed to make good money.
Whenever a new dungeon is discovered, someone needs to analyze its levels and the type of monsters it contains. The party that first discovers a dungeon must at least enter the first floor to find the right person. The right person is whoever can overpower most if not all monsters in the dungeon.
The position is highly sought after due to the profits! It is a basic rule that adventurers entering dungeons are allowed to keep whatever they find. The only catch is that they must always pay a fee at the entrance. That fee can change depending on the location but is usually relatively cheap.
The position of first to enter is therefore sometimes auctioned off due to that basic rule. Dungeon treasure chests do not respawn. Only monsters do and only especial monsters drop items. Meaning whoever enters first gets all the goodies!
The person who won today's bid was a C-class magician. Magician's ranks are determined by three basic things.
One is mana. The amount of spells they can cast is highly dependent on mana so it is almost a guarantee to take the number into account when assigning ranks.
Two is cast speed. The speed at which a magician can fire spells is almost as important as how much mana they have. Who cares if you have infinite mana if it takes you one minute just to cast one spell!
Three is Knowledge. You can't cast anything if you don't know anything! The spells a magician has learned are also taken into account. Knowledge is a smaller factor because if you don't know many spells all you have to do is learn them and although that would put your understanding to the test it should still be possible with time.
The latest auction was won by a lone C-class magician who was just about ready to head off. They must first prepare some basic potions and equipment, however.
"Hey, I heard you won the auction! Congratulations! How about paying for a few drinks eh?" He was approached by a person before he could begin his preparations.
The magician, William, was not open to that suggestion, "How about you mooch off of somebody else?" He said with a tinge of annoyance.
"Come on Will! We've known each other for a while there is no need to act so cold!" The freeloading man is called Bruce, he sometimes joins William on adventures. The auction is for the entry of a party, not one person, meaning that bruce should be able to join him. And even though Bruce knew this he still asked for drinks instead.
"Tsk" William was audibly annoyed. He turned away from Bruce and prepared to leave.
If it wasn't for the frail body of magicians he would have never gotten acquainted with Bruce who was a warrior. Before he could leave, however, the Bulky and heavy Bruce held onto his shoulder and brought him closer in a friendly manner.
"Come on don't be so cheap, at least take me with you then" Bruce's expression was friendly and jovial.
"You can forget about that. I need the money." William has always preferred to act alone due to his monetary needs.
"Oh! that's right you never told me why though! How about telling me over a few drinks." William only stared at him in disbelief. His shamelessness in asking for drinks is something to admire that's for sure.
"If I delay any longer I'll have to pay a fee to the Adventurer's Union. They were only selling the first clear on the condition that the adventurer starts immediately. I have lost a couple of minutes of preparation thanks to you." Upon hearing that Bruce let go of William and adjusted William's disheveled robe. William proceeded to immediately walk away.
"No thank you?" Bruce asked while looking towards William's retreating figure.
"You messed it up in the first place so you can forget about it" William yelled back before walking off in the direction of the bustling market.
A couple of hours later he was brought to the location of the dungeon by the Freedom Union, one of the many adventuring organizations in this world. They seemed to be quite hurried for some reason.
He didn't give it much thought and took a quick glance at the dungeon's exterior. It was a mossy cave. The report by the finders said that there should be a stair leading down into the dungeon.
William approached the cave entrance and found nothing strange. In cases like this one, it is impossible to know if the cave itself is part of the dungeon or not. It is better to be careful.
After walking carefully for about a minute he found some stairs leading in. Wasting no time he walked down and was met by eerie torchlight. The room was fairly well lit and had no mobs to speak of Just as described in the report. The first room on each dungeon floor is usually these safe rooms.
William continued on his way while carefully examining his surroundings. He cast a sense presence spell whenever he neared a new room or walking down large hallways. The lighting dimmed after exiting the safe room making the sense presence spells a necessity.
The monsters he had found so far where the undead type if he finds any ghosts he should still have no problem dealing with them. Ghosts are immune to most physical damage. Only special skills or items equipment can change that.
Walking down another large hallway he was met by a new flight of stairs. As expected this dungeon is well suited for beginners. William should be able to breeze through the lower floors. That being the case William decided to get a bit reckless.
Beginner dungeons tend to have at most 15 floors. Harder dungeons aren't significantly larger either though, the largest dungeon found only has 30 floors. Then again, the floors weren't always small either, some could be as large as small countries making them take a long time to clear. Regardless, this dungeon did indeed seem to be a beginner dungeon so the chances of that were small.
His C-ranking was caused by William's exceptional talent. He has a large mana pool and an incredible casting speed. Although his knowledge still has ways to go, he only knew three spells.
On the next floor, he still activated his presence sensing skills as usual but he no longer walked around carefully or considered taking breaks. He let loose spells in all directions where he found skeletons or low-level zombies. He would take a break before entering any sort of dungeon boss instead.
He cast fireballs for large groups and lightning for individual mobs. His large mana pool was being drained at a moderate pace even while taking into account his wasteful behavior.
He cleared the first two floors in less than an hour. Had he not being so cautious on the first floor he could have easily halved the time. He borrowed a special item from the Freedom Union which located stairs to other floors as well which could further shorten the time.
The first few floors are always small. Dungeons are comparable to pyramids, each floor gets larger further down you go. The few exceptions are the dungeons in the form of towers, they are pretty consistent throughout.
The third floor wasn't very different from the other ones yet it seemed to done an eerie atmosphere. This lifted William's expectations, stronger dungeons had better treasure! He didn't consider the possibility of greater danger, he immediately started wreaking havoc on the third floor.
Although his expectations for the treasure chests were lifted he was still a bit worried about how much money he can make off of this. Undead dungeons are known for their bad payout, outside of dungeon bosses that drop items, all the undead mobs are useless! You can't sell undead monster parts no matter how hard you try.
Traversing down another eerie corridor, he noticed something unusual. Before he could enter a new room, he sensed a monster waiting in ambush.
This caught him by surprise, he expected this dungeon to be an easy matter. The intelligence of that monster increased his vigilance. He cast a fireball spell and detonated it near the entrance, the hiding monster was blown back and all the other monsters in the room which he failed to notice due to the poor lighting started rushing towards him.
Although the situation was unusual he still showed no fear. The special monster that he has yet to see seemed pretty vulnerable. The explosion seemed to have stopped it altogether.
Sending another fireball to finish the group of baddies, William was already thinking about how to proceed. Should he be more careful from now on? There weren't any mobs that could withstand his fireball until now.
As William entered the room ready to finish off the Skeleton he blew back, he was attacked by it.
The Skeleton that seemed charred all over threw a fierce punch. The enchantment on his blue robe activated and created a transparent shield.
He cast a basic lightning spell and finished it off. To his surprise, it dropped a polished white bone! He had never seen it before but it was bound to fetch a good price.. He picked it up and continued on his way.