Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

They heard consecutive sounds of flapping and their three leaders landed in front of them. Blake, the guild master of the Burning Arrow Guild, Kody the radiant healer and the aforementioned Frida the [Hellbringer].

Together, the three of them were the cornerstone of this guild and as long as they remained, their Burning Arrow's guild would be the top guild in the city of Mountmend.

Blake whose armour had returned to its usual golden black colour, flumped himself down on top of a nearby rock and observed his teammates. The journey from top floor to here, was moderately an easy one with the subsidiary team clearing most of the monsters for them.

Starting from the ninth floor was when the difficulty went up by a notch; nevertheless, it was still not a problem for his guild whose average level was above level 200.

'Floor fourteenth huh' Blake inwardly thought. The fourteenth floor was the highest floor that they had explored up until now and was also the latest floor that had been discovered by anyone yet.

"Chuck was right, this dungeon is indeed not a [E] rank" Blake muttered feeling the density of mana in the air which was so dense and the quickly restoring dungeon. These were all signs that the dungeon was already a [D] rank and was swiftly on its way to evolve up a rank.

His dozens of years of adventuring told him that. At this moment he heard approaching footsteps and saw Frida walking towards him.

"What are you pondering about so much Blake" Resting herself beside him, she asked.

"It's just that it's hard to believe a newly emerged dungeon could evolve so fast," Blake said shaking his head.

Frida rested her chin on her hands and made a brooding face.

"You are right, it hasn't even been a year and the dungeon seems already ready to go up another rank. I had once explored a [C] tier dungeon before I joined this guild and I can tell you honestly that I see more and more similarities between the two".

"I see… what do you think Kody" Blake asked turning towards Kody who had approached them at an unknown time.

The person with the clergy robe mused for a while looking at the distant entrance to the next floor.

"This dungeon is an anomaly for sure… isn't that why the Branch director asked you to investigate it personally. Though, in my opinion, you made the right choice by accepting the request. A dungeon like this which deviates from all the norm, might become a disaster that threatens our city in the future if we don't explore and understand about its limit right now".

Blake nodded, the words of the healer was right, it was not only about the demon noble that was the master of this place, they needed to understand what rank he was and the potential of the dungeon increasing up a tier.

All of these factors played a huge role because the difficulty of the dungeon is closely related to its rank. The Adventurer's association needs to know about the rank of the dungeon and its future potential to evolve so that it could grade the dungeon as high, intermediate or low.

If they mess up with their judgement and evaluate a dungeon poorly, the negligence would cause the death of thousands of adventurers.

It was not something unusual to see adventurers disappearing inside the dungeon without surfacing ever again. Most often than not it happens because they underestimate the difficulty of the dungeon, especially the floors.

This event had repeated so often in history that many times adventurers have blamed the Association for evaluating the dungeon wrongly. Because of this, the Adventurer's association makes a detailed evaluation of all the dungeons and grades them accordingly.

"Alright after we reach the fourteenth floor, let us move very prudently. We do not know how many floors this dungeon has, if we approach too close to the core, there is also the possibility of us encountering the master of this place".

"In the case that they are a Demon Earl, our only hope is to run" Blake stood up and hurriedly roared out orders.

He then looked at Frida before asking "What are the updates on the Subsidiary Attack team?".

"They are currently resting in the tower town, do you want me to call them down?" Frida said.

Nodding his head, Blake commanded, "Tell them to camp here so that they can immediately respond to our aid".

Although he did not say it loud, he knew that the association was using them as disposables. After a while, the subsidiary team came to the twelfth floor just in time to see the main attack team proceed forward to the next floor.

With the three leaders personally taking charge of the exploration this time, the progress they made was smoother than they expected. T

he fourteenth floor which was a vast wasteland spanning for dozens of kilometres seemed empty at a glance with no presence of monsters found anywhere. But make no mistake, the monsters here are aerial predators and fly so fast that it is difficult for a low levelled person to see them.

The members of the blinding Arrow's guild were experienced and well-trained individuals, though they made some mistakes that led to one or two of them getting injured, they swiftly mended their errors, ceasing from committing any more blunders.

Corpses of Anemodactly littered the ground as more and more of them dropped onto the floor dead. While it is true that their opponent was extremely fast in mid-air and knew mid-range attacks like [Wind Slash] and [Wind Claws], they who were used to their patterns, could shoot them with their skills as they approached near.

Unlike their enemy, they were capable of coordination and teamwork which made handling them all the more easier. These adventurers looked up and saw their three leaders who were capable of flight, easily slaying multiple Anemodactyl at once.

They made it so easy that for a second these adventurers thought that they weren't fighting a bunch of level 130-150 monsters but some low-level weaklings. The Blinding's Arrow guild was a top tier guild around these parts and with them bringing their finest members, they stomped one floor after the other.

Fifteenth floor, Sixteenth floor, they slowly cleared one floor after the other. Although the monsters there were a problem, thanks to having a large number of healing potions and the subsidiary attack team aiding them from time to time, the team suffered no casualties.

For this exploration, the Burning Arrow Guild had spent a large sum of money on acquiring weapons, elixirs, armours and various other things. By the time they arrived on the nineteenth floor, two days had already passed.

As the group descended onto the nineteenth floor, they observed that the floor was extremely peaceful with luminescent trees, grass and various odd flowers dotting the place.

Since they were an experienced team of adventurers, they did not let their guard down but even after a while of searching the place, they did not sense any presence of monsters on this floor.

"Let's take a break here. The gate to the next floor is open, recover your expended strength and stamina before we move forward. However, don't let your guard down. Although there are no presence of monsters on this floor, we do not know that it is a 'Safe Floor' yet" Blake commanded after surveying the floor.

Safe floor is a term that the adventurer use when naming a particular floor of the dungeon which spawns no monsters making it an ideal place for adventurers like them to rest and recover from their fatigue.

Inside the dungeon where they had to be constantly on guard and fight monsters to clear a way, rest was a luxury thus the adventurers took a break every now and then. The group found an open plain and sat down to recover their strength; nevertheless, they did not disband and sat accordingly in a way that left very few to no openings.

"I can't believe a safe floor exists in this dungeon. Isn't it only a low ranking one?" a group of adventurers seated at the centre of the formation discussed.

"Yeah, you are right. According to the adventurer's association, only dungeon intermediate tier or above should have a Safe Floor" They argued.

While they were right in saying that, what they didn't know was that adventurers' association based their evaluation on the fact that low tier dungeons which did not have many floors and are more prone to being conquered by the adventurers do not have a need to create a Safe Floor.

Whereas, High and Intermediate tier dungeons which have numerous floors, strong monsters and are more hard to conquer, have Safe Floors to keep the morale of the adventurers from breaking down.

Of course, the dungeon Laplace that Simon made, deviated from every common knowledge and the pre-established notions of the adventurer's association.

"What are you all babbling about, didn't you hear the guild master say that we are still not sure this place is a Safe Floor?" an adventurer whose class seems to be a mage, walked towards them and said.

As he approached them, there were many murmurs from everyone. The man who had approached them was after all a powerful mage second only to Firda one of their three leaders. His mighty spells had destroyed many Stormwolves and Battle Bears on the previous floors.

"Hmph, there is no way a low ranking dungeon could have a Safe Floor. In my opinion, we are very close to the dungeon core and there are no more monsters strong enough to hold out against us. If we keep mounting the pressure, we might be the first guild in Mountmend to conquer a dungeon. Do you know what that means?".