Chương 60: Briefing

Damion could hardly believe his ears. The Adventurer Association had pitted him against a Demonic Beast for his promotion exam. That was crazy. Sure, he killed the Demonic Beast and did not suffer any injuries. But Demonic Beasts were almost always stronger, faster and more aggressive than Ferocious Beasts. Not knowing he was against a Demonic Beast could have been disastrous. Luckily, Damion wanted to end the fight quickly and used his full power when he attacked it. And if, as Ms.

Teft said, that Wind Wolf was from the new dungeon, he was certainly capable of handling whatever else might be waiting for them in the new dungeon. After removing his new armor and storing it, Damion returned home and began arranging his gear, so he was ready to depart first thing in the morning. His mother fussed over him, but Damion just told her he was taking a mission through the Benault Forest like he had before and that it was nothing to worry about.

When morning came, Damion headed out and met with Ethan, who had already rented a ground car, and they were off. Ethan controlled the car, and they made good time to the edge of the Benault Forest where they were forced to slowdown. Of course, Ethan did not slow down that much.

"You do know where we are going right?" Damion asked as they sped through the forest, trees flying past.

"Yep," Ethan replied as he pointed a finger ahead. The ground car began to slow, and Damion looked to where Ethan had pointed. Ahead of them, just off the forest road were several ground cars forming what Damion could only describe as a roadblock along a side trail through the forest.

"I don't recall ever seeing a road here before," Damion said as he searched his memory.

"They made it to help teams like ours find our way. Plus, they'll need a road for the truck they load the dungeon containment unit on."

"Are containment units that big?"

"As big as they need to be to enclose the portal," Ethan answered as he pulled his vehicle up to a knight that Damion could tell was part of the Sentinel Order, the knights responsible for patrolling the wilds of White, Green and Yellow Zones.

"Identification," the knight commanded. Damion and Ethan both quickly presented their adventurer licenses. The knight used a small tablet to scan their licenses one at a time. After each scan a green light flashed on its screen which Damion took to mean the knight was checking them off a list of approved people for the dungeon.

"The waiting area is 3 kilometers ahead. When you arrive, check in with the overseer. You'll get further instructions from them."

"Yes sir," Ethan replied happily as he took their adventurer licenses back. The roadblock parted with a signal from the Sentinel and Ethan and Damion were quickly on their way to the holding area. A short time later, Ethan parked his ground car next to another and the two got out with their packs and gear and went looking around for the overseer. Damion could tell the forest area they were in had been hastily cleared.

Trees were felled and pushed off to the side and either they had trucked in a load of gravel to even out the ground, or an Earth affinity mage was here at some point. Whoever did all the work had created a fairly large clearing in the Benault Forest for everyone to work more comfortably in. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. The overseer turned out to be a tall knight in a large open tent not far from the parking area.

Luckily the tent had a sign outside that read 'Overseer's Office' so Ethan and Damion did not have to guess if this was the right place.

"Knight Hoyt, Knight Wells. Welcome. Your team can enter the dungeon as soon as the rest of your team arrives."

"Are we the only ones here?" Damion asked. He knew Arica was supposed to be joining them, as for the rest of the team, Damion had no idea.

"Mage Miller is here as well, but your final two party members have not arrived."

"Excellent," Ethan said with a smile.

"Where might we find Mage Miller?"

"Last I saw she was talking with a group that had recently completed a run. A good idea for both of you as well. The better prepared you are, the less likely you are to suffer accidents. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have quite a few reports to finish." Damion and Ethan politely left the overseer's tent and went in search of Arica. They were able to find her not too far away from the dungeon portal at a table with a group of weary looking adventurers.

When Arica noticed Damion and Ethan walking towards her, she quickly waved them over.

"Damion. Ethan. I'm so glad we can do another dungeon together. And you Damion, I heard you advanced to E Rank already. My master said you did exceptionally well on your test."

"705," Damion confirmed his score for her, which brought shocked looks from several of the adventurers that Arica had been talking to moments before.

"Why, even better than I imagined. If I don't get working you may beat me to D Rank," Arica said with a laugh that brought butterflies to Damion's stomach. After his parents had teased him a few weeks ago, he had become quite self-conscious around women. Damion did not think Arica saw him as anything more than a promising teenager, but hearing her laugh made him wonder if she would ever see him as more.

"So, here is the rundown on the dungeon," Arica began to talk about everything she had learned from groups coming out of the dungeon and from what they had filed in their reports. So far, the dungeon had shown great diversity in Demonic Beasts. Most beasts were typical of forests, which is how the inside of the dungeon appeared. The most dangerous of the Demonic Beasts reported were Wind Wolves, Steel Claw Owls and Stone Bears. The guardians encountered so far were mostly alpha Wind Wolves.

Once the guardian was an alpha Stone Bear, but so far the guardian had not been a Steel Claw Owl. The guardian resided at the back of a deep cave. The cave also housed at least one champion on each clear, as well as several other Demonic Beasts. Since the cave was dark, cramped and housed the most dangerous creatures in the dungeon, it was important to approach with caution.

"You think since the guardian area is underground there won't be a variant of the dungeon with a Steel Claw Owl as the guardian?" Damion asked as Arica finished sharing what she knew about the dungeon.

"That seems to be the case. Although, it is possible for a guardian room to shift in a variant, it is quite rare and I don't think anyone really believes it will happen in an E Rank dungeon."

"How much gold is each team walking away with?" Ethan asked eyeing the other groups around listening to Arica's report.

"The total haul for most groups has been between 40 and 100 gold. Though they have just been bringing back the Demonic Cores and a few pelts from the wolves and bears. There was one group that was rewarded a lot more, I don't know how much, but apparently they captured several Wind Wolves and brought them out."

"Captured!" Ethan was astonished at the thought of that, however, Damion, having fought one of the Wind Wolves, remained calm.

"How? How did they manage that at E Rank?"

"One of the mages had a rare affinity that allowed him to," Arica said with a shrug.

"What kind of affinity can let someone capture Demonic Beasts?" Damion asked, quite curious. Since he had searched high and low for information on rare affinities over the years while trying to figure out his, he had learned a fair bit about rare affinities, but he had never heard of one that could tame Demonic Beasts.

"People with the rarest affinities don't like to share them," Arica responded.

"I don't know the exact nature of their affinity, only that they could somehow use it to capture the Wind Wolves."