The night was quiet, peaceful even, somehow, this peace slowly made me lose my mind. My usually perfectly stable hands kept on trembling, nervously looking for the handle of my blade, the other guard - standing on the post next to mine would only smile with corners of his mouth - but not in a mocking way - seeing me walking from one end of the post to another.

But, eventually, the sun started rising on the horizon banishing shadows on the night. Slowly, very slowly, under rays of the sun my armor started getting warmer, and that warmth started resonating across my bones, my very existence. The ‘excitement’ that the night brought perished without a trace and a nearly numbing calmness once again took over my mind. I “inhaled”, clearing my head, readying myself for the morning drill.

Captain Godric, together with his two lieutenants woke up mere minutes after sunrise and right away started waking up the rest of the camp.

“Wake up, maggots! We have monsters to raid and dungeon to kill!... Or something like that. Regardless of this, you know we are rather time sensitive! You never know what monsters wake up during the night, and trust me, you don’t want to stay up in dark, narrow tunnels to learn this! Chop-chop, you lazy bastards, or maybe you want to spend the autumn equinox here? Because I learned the hard way that you would rather not spend the night filled with magic in magic-related places!”

Despite rather harsh words from the raid leaders, everyone was working hard preparing their weapons, putting on armor, and literally stuffing their bellies with days worth of calories.

Eventually, the three commanders approached the dungeon’s guardians post - me and the guy who spent the night with me doing nothing, but watching the cave entrance.

“Report, soldier, anything unordinary?” Captain asked. “Sir no sir, not a single movement, not a single sound - the torches were burning for the whole night as well.”

Captains looked in my direction, checking if I wanted to add something, but I only nodded my head.

“It was a peaceful night, sir.”

He nodded, pleased with our words.

“John, go to the camp and have some rest, Alabaster, get ready, you are joining scavengers’ squad, you enter the dungeon ten minutes after us. Any questions?” “Yes sir, if I may - we are not meant to participate in fighting, but, what if somehow we would encounter…” “An enemy? You will not be left alone, the rearguard would remain with you, as well as try securing every bigger room and corridor. Also… I believe that you have that weapon by your belt for a reason, no?” he patted my shoulder, leaving to prepare for a dive.

Very soon two more knights came to change us on the watchmen duty, my ‘nameless’ companion headed toward the tent for well-earned rest as I started heading towards a smaller group of knights.

“Oi, Alabaster, are you sure you can handle it?” one of the knights assigned to the scavengers asked, looking at me with a puzzled expression and doubt-filled eyes. “Why do you ask?” “First you were marching for the day, then you stayed up the entire night, and now you want to head into the dungeon? I have heard that you won all your battles with other cadets during your baptism, but staying in the arena for a few hours is a bit different from spending hours in the dark, damp dungeon…” “Fret not, I am fine, even more than just fine! Trust me, because of excitement, my senses have never been sharpe…” “Alabaster, catch!” someone yelled at me from the side, then… he threw a dagger in my direction.

I managed to step off its line just in time.

“...Are you fucking serious?” I asked, seeing how the blade dug deep in the tree trunk behind me. “Aye, he’s telling the truth.” the dagger-thrower said happily walking towards the tree and retrieving his weapon. “You could have hit me!” “But I didn’t!”

I turned around and looked at the rest of the knights.

“Is he always acting like that?” guessing by their huge grins, the answer was yes. “Don’t think much about it, Steph is quite skilled with his daggers, at very worst he would hit your helmet, stunning you for a few seconds.” “You are simply impossible!” I shook my head to the sides, not wanting to believe that the country's finest warriors are actually pulling dangerous pranks on one another right before a dungeon dive.

My reaction only helped them to ease their mood even more as they laughed cheerfully, later mocking me, mimicking my startled behavior.

But even then, their folly acts came to the end, for the captain once started yelling orders with his powerful tone.

“Into formation, maggots! You know the drill!”

Warriors, who up until now stood in front of the commander, broke their lines and started creating several smaller groups of three or four - heavily armored warrior, lightly armored duelist, and either rogue, mage, or priest. Seeing his knights standing in such loose formation, Godrick nodded pleased, eventually taking a spot in the center of the raid, so other groups made a ring-like protective formation around him.

Then, they entered the cave. The rest of us - five scavengers and six regular knights of the back guard (two squads) waited patiently for ten minutes before following behind the main squad, entering the dungeon.

You have entered the [The Caverns of ?-$/|7%??? Error - Data insufficient Data possessed by the [User] does not match Dungeon's [True Darkness] status is in effect and shall affect challengers

The old name of the dungeon was supposed to be, according to the raid information presented before the mission, The Caverns of the Cold Ones, yet here the system told me that the name was no longer valid… Does it have anything to do with the thing that Captain spoke about yesterday? Dungeon reshuffling? He did say that it usually happens when dungeons become stronger and grow? Was that the case? I didn’t know nearly enough to speculate… but… The dungeon growing bigger shouldn’t affect its name, should it? Unless… What changed was not just the dungeon layout which added a few more rooms and monsters, but it’s entire type and class?!

I wanted to scream, yell about it, warn people… but then, how would I explain where I got this information from?!

Continuing our journey down we stepped deeper into dark corridors of the dungeon, and once we passed a certain distance within the dungeon, another notification popped up.

[True Darkness] This place is deprived of [Standard] sources of light. No sun, no moon nor stars' light reach here [Dark Arts] are 25% more effective

[Holy Arts] are 25% less effective here

[Creatures] with no [Night Vision] or other [Non-Vision based] detection-related skills will suffer [RFX] debuff

Indeed, the dungeon was illuminated only with some blue and green crystals as well as some strange, bioluminescent plants, providing less than enough light to let humans see properly, I noticed my team members unconsciously started tightening their formation, which in case of an ambush could prove to be deadly.

The whole scenery looked quite eerie. Each of the rooms and even corridors were ridiculously spacious but filled with dozens of seemingly random environmental elements - natural columns, rock shelves, and strangely - plants and mushrooms - way too many of those, each acted like a distraction that could potentially hide the monster.

And I? I felt so peaceful. It was just so “right” to be here, my senses were sharpened, my mind was at ease… And the light smell of sweet, fresh death coming from the deeper part of the dungeon was gently summoning me, promising all the essence I could ever dream for.

Finding the first corpse left by the attacking group was easy; it was left in the middle of the path in one of the deeper rooms. The path was nothing but a small rocky carpet cutting the room in two, narrow, two meters wide at most, surrounded on both sides by tall grass, reaching my tight. The monster looked like a small, bipedal lizard, with thin, slightly curved frontal limbs equipped in long flesh-tearing talons. It alone wasn’t very tall, being as big as a medium-sized dog… which made it easy for it to hide in the thickets all around the room…

“Type two monster?” one of my companions asked aloud.

But, the other one just pointed at the other similar corpse lying a bit further in, and then another, and another, and yet another on.

“No. Type five.”

I saw the essence of death hovering above each of the corpses, this way, finding each and every of them was fairly easy. Just in this room, there were around twenty similar creatures lying dead, with their heads smashed open or body twisted in awkward directions, with its bones clearly broken beyond any recognition.

“These… types. What are they? Commander named the beast from before as type four…” I asked the question which had occupied my mind for quite some time. “Basically monster classes used to classify monster types which can be encountered in dungeons. Type one is a classic all-rounded warrior. Type two is agile, a fast one, rogue if you want to name them like that. Type three is a slow, usually armored one. Type four is giant, five is ‘pack monster’ literally never spotted alone. Type six are assassins or so-called ambushers. Seven is Pack Caller - someone that can control several ‘fives’. Eight is a mage, nine is commander OR spawner. Tier ten is boss.” One of the knights of the rearguard was quite eager to answer my question. “These types are used to classify a dungeon's difficulty - seeing what kind of monster jumps on you on the first floor. Rank E dungeons start with regular schemat - type one monster on floor one, type two monster of seconds floor… and so on, usually having ten floors or sections, to begin with, and the boss waiting at the very end. Then the sooner higher tier monster attacks you, the higher the given dungeon level. D rank dungeon greets you with a mixture of tier one and two monsters, D+ with tier three, C with four… and so on.” “Before we left, Captain Godric said that this dungeon was B rank… That means we can expect…” I did simple math in my head “... tier six monster? Ambusher?” “Bingo! Now, can you guys please start WORKING!?” the knight who was meant to be here as our protection smiled, a bit annoyed, desperately trying to remain cool-headed. “Ah, yes. Sorry.”

And just like that, we were reminded that we are here to clean bodies of useful materials, and not to study flora, fauna, and dungeon topography - the raid had other people for those tasks.

Once again, I hunched my back and started working, cutting bodies of the monsters into pieces, ripping scales off and harvesting organs… feasting on the essence in the process.

[Ratptox] Small and usually easy to frighten - those clever little creatures almost never attack unless they have crushing number advantage, and even then chose to collapse on a single enemy tearing him/her apart from within a minute.

Despite being rather weak and easy to kill, one should never underestimate their gluttony. You have gathered [Ratptox] essence [21] [375/1250] → [396/1250] You have gathered [Ratptox] essence [23] [396/1250] → [418/1250] You have gathered [Ratptox] essence [19] [418/1250] → [437/1250]

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You have gathered [Ratptox] essence [21] [437/1250] → [771/1250]

These monsters were also sharing common traits with their bigger cousin from yesterday - and I was not talking about them being a lizard, but rather once again some smaller plants and fungus growing in various places of their bodies, bah! - One of them had a small flower growing from the tip of its head!

The essence, which until now greatly covered my ‘vision’ all over the room, like sets of huge grey clouds were systematically vanishing, once again granting me clarity of sight all over the room.

“You know, would be much faster if you guys helped us…” one of fellow scavengers looked somewhat annoyed at the guards, who were casually resting on their spears, chatting happily “And deprive you of your work?! We could never do something so evil!” one of them said in a fakely concerned tone “... also, someone needs to watch over you! As you work with heads low and asses up, you might become prey to some vicious predators!” “That’s the first room! You literally NEVER see the strongest type of monster in the first room!” “You know that, we know that - but does the dungeon know that? I would prefer not risking your life to check this.” the man obviously mocked us, shaking his head to the sides.

In a few dozens more minutes, we were done, leaving nicely stocked body parts for the “transport” unit which was supposed to enter the dungeon after us. And so, our group resumed the march toward the ‘door’ leading towards the deeper part of the dungeon - where the attacking group was supposed to wreak havoc.

But, we were far too carefree. In the end, the attacking group already passed this room, so there should be nothing to be afraid of?

The man who previously threw a dagger at me - loud, but a really good man - named Joseph “pretended” being annoyed by the mockery of the guard was moving quickly towards the entrance.

And then, my “life vision” activated itself.

Just above the entrance to the next room, the “stones” were alive, they moved a little, very, very slightly.

“Joseph! Stop!” I yelled, reaching my hand towards him, making him stop at the very last moment, he was there, just a few meters from the end of the room and rocks ‘pulsating’ with the red light of life. “What?!” he asked, annoyed. “Please… don’t turn around, and come back to us… DON’T! TURN! AROUND!... There is a monster, right behind you, don’t make any sudden moves and…” “Oi, pulling my leg, are ya? Still mad at that dagger throw?! Sorry, but I am too old for those kinds of…” he once again turned around and made a step further in.

And then, just as I feared, the “stones” moved. It was another monster - one with camouflage, perfectly blending with the environment while remaining perfectly still - and it was big, nearly three meters long.

It opened its mouth and attacked with its long, sticky tongue, grabbing Joseph, pulling him back into its maw. Its jaws snapped, breaking the poor, foolish human in two, splashing blood everywhere. With its hideout betrayed, the monster jumped off the wall, ready to face us.

[Chamanide]

Have you ever wondered what would [Chameleon]s eat if they were cart-sized with the strength of a cave bear, agility of a cat, and intelligence of a scholar? The answer is - on everything smaller than them. These creatures live according to the credo - if it is not the food - why does it fit into my mouth?

These creatures' ability to blend with the environment made them nearly perfect hunters. Being able to slow down their metabolism they can 'play dead' for days. Atop of that, they are smart and NEVER attack bigger groups, choosing to patiently wait for an isolated target to walk past them.

I stood like that, frozen, not believing what I just witnessed. The man with whom I just talked seconds ago, with whom I joked and laughed, lied before me, dead… Or, actually, only half of him lied there, from belt up, his face was still twisted in surprised expression, eyes opened wide, as the monster just finished chewing his lower half.

… I couldn’t save him…

“Into formation! It’s tier six!” the leader of the back guards yelled.

Led only by “muscle memory”, reacting to command, I unsheath my sword, though, my mind still seemed to be a bit absent.

I wanted to say that I didn’t believe that Joseph was dead, but, the semi-transparent, greyish cloud escaping his body was more than enough evidence for me.

I moved my eyes from the corpse onto the creature… I wanted to feel rage, I wanted to scream and shout insults, promising it its demise…

… but, after the first shock, all I felt was cold numbness in my mind. I knew that I should have lamented, that I should feel rage and wrath…

But. Instead, all I felt was pure, disgusting focus. I wanted to make this battle personal, and yet, I couldn’t. Fully aware of the situation I started checking for the monster's weaknesses. Awfully rational, I readied myself for a battle.