Chapter 60: The Wrong Door
Aiden had just walked into the main room and was staring at the much different format his system had taken for the daily missions.
[Daily Missions x7: Complete at least one mission or guild request]
[For the next 7 days you’re expected to complete at least one of those requests]
[Rewards: ??]
[Bonus Reward: ??]
This didn’t seem like a bad bargain either, especially given that each mission request he completed would give him a merit star.
Arianna, who had been staring at the notice board, had already decided what missions she and the other initiates should take that morning.
She turned around to see Aiden stepping into the main room from the corridor and called out to him.
"Aiden!"
She gestured for him to come closer, and when he did, she said, "I think we should take these missions; this one and this one," while pointing at two D-rank mission requests.
Both were dungeons at D-ranked difficulty.
"We’ll split up into two parties. You and I can take this one at Town Lyson, while Kayden and Laela can take the other close to Shinjin’s Pass."
Aiden had followed along and paid attention to what she was saying right up until she did the splitting.
"I’ll go with Laela instead," Aiden said.
This was mostly because he knew Kayden had an obnoxious character and didn’t want the elf to experience any of that.
"Besides, don’t you two lovebirds need to spend some time together?" Aiden said, turning toward her with a mischievous smile and a voice that sounded as if he was taunting Arianna.
Arianna smiled back, but she didn’t want to get paired with Kayden either. "I would rather go with Laela," she said.
However, at that moment, Kayden had just walked into the main room, and Aiden noticed him first by his scent.
His dragon’s sense passive skill was catching on to familiar scents now.
Aiden turned toward Kayden, who was slowly approaching them with a scowl on his face; especially since he didn’t like seeing Aiden standing so close to his woman.
Aiden called out to him, "Arianna said she wants you for a mission."
"No, I..." Arianna tried to refute the statement but couldn’t proceed as Kayden was already in front of them both.
Kayden’s scowl instantly disappeared. "Oh?" he muttered, looking toward Arianna, who gave him a fake smile and nodded in approval.
Aiden had caught her off guard with that one.
"Good, so now that we’re all in agreement, we can go and inform the Captain we’ll be splitting up to take two mission requests," Aiden said, then walked away from their midst with an amused expression.
Laela had just stepped into the main room when she saw her fellow initiates walking together toward the Captain’s chambers.
Aiden, who noticed her as well, looked in her direction and asked her to come along.
...
The four of them reached out to the captain and explained how they wanted to divide up the mission tasks, but that did not sit well with Katherine.
"No! What sort of captain would I be, sending only two people to a dungeon?" Katherine said with a firm tone.
"Captain, haven’t we already proved that we are more than capable of such small tasks?" Arianna asked, with her eyes so determined as ever
Piers, who stood at the Captain’s side, said, "She’s right, Captain. You also praised their magic power a great deal when you came back from the exams yesterday."
Katherine sighed. "Are any of you capable of healing with your magic?" she asked.
They shook their heads to the contrary, except for Aiden, who raised his hand slightly and said, "I know the healing spell Goddess Embrace."
The other three initiates looked at Aiden in surprise, and Katherine had an amused expression on her face.
The captain then replied, "Somehow I don’t even doubt that. Alright, Piers, assign Elena to these two," she said, pointing toward Arianna and Kayden.
"Yes, Captain," Piers responded.
She then turned toward Aiden and said, "Since you’re the one with the healing, be careful not to put yourself in a bad spot."
Aiden nodded affirmatively. "Yes, Captain."
"And remember, look out for each other," she added.
"Yes, Captain," they said in unison.
Katherine then stood and went to a corner of her chambers, pulling out a little box. When she opened it, she brought out a small scroll tied with rope; this was a map of the kingdom and towns.
"Piers will read the map for you all," she said.
...
As soon as they understood their directions, each party set out from the captain’s chambers.
Katherine looked worried as they left, especially because it was the first time she was letting only two mages deal with an entire dungeon.
She however kept trying to reassure herself with the fact that she had seen them all display very powerful usage of magic.
The mages made their way to the stables to get horses and set off. Aiden was riding with Laela clutching onto him from behind, while Kayden shared one with Arianna, and Elena sat on the last horse.
They all rode out of the city gates, and at a crossroads, they split paths.
Aiden and Laela went off in one direction while Kayden, Arianna, and Elena headed off in another.
...
After a few hours’ ride, Aiden and Laela arrived at Shinjin’s Pass.
Shinjin’s Pass, as it was called, was the name given to a deep canyon right between the Kingdom of Xathia and Zakha.
To get to Xathia from Zakha, one had to cross Shinjin’s Pass.
The dungeon itself had spawned much closer to the Xathia side of the pass than toward Zakha, and because of that, most intended travelers had not been able to move freely between kingdoms for fear of a dungeon break happening with them being the first victims.
The duo eventually approached the spawned mausoleum-looking structure, this was the dungeon.
Aiden had studied dungeons not so long ago, so he knew that the rank of a dungeon could be determined by its size and the magical energy you could feel from behind its door.
It wasn’t a large mausoleum-looking structure, maybe only slightly larger than the one they’d dealt with at Rivendale, or even the same size.
Aiden then placed his hand on the doors to feel the magical energy coming from behind them, and he confirmed it didn’t pose a serious threat. This was certainly a D-ranked dungeon.
He turned toward Laela and asked, "Are you ready?"
She nodded affirmatively.
Aiden then pushed the doors leading into the dungeon open, and they both crossed through the translucent portal that led into it.
However, what they saw upon gaining entrance was completely different.
This was Laela’s first experience, so she didn’t exactly know what to expect, but Aiden whispered upon entrance, "No..."
This was a deserted wasteland.
The ground was dry, cracked, and scattered with broken remains of what looked like destroyed buildings. The air was dusty and heavy, with dark clouds partially covering the sky.
They had not entered a D-rank dungeon.
They had entered a Dynamic Ranked Dungeon.