The loud roar of people talking along with a constant creaking of wood echoed throughout the central plaza. Workers were in a constant fervor to load the ship with all the necessary supplies for the upcoming journey. They were behind schedule and were thankful it was the Prime Magus’ private airship and not the Emperor’s. Large wood boxes containing food, shelter, and weapons slowly filled up the cargo hold. The amount brought on board was far too large for any of the Empire’s space mages, and the only one going on the journey was proficient in teleportation formations.

The leader of the adventurer group, Dungeon Reconnaissance, stared out the window of a large tavern watching the workers in silence as the rest of his team argued about their upcoming job. He was a mountain of a man standing seven feet tall, his entire body bulging with muscles. Curly, auburn hair cascaded down his head to his shoulders and a large, thick beard of a slightly lighter auburn was formed over his sculpted jaw. Last but not least, his piercing blue eyes caused most men to stiffen and women to become dreamy eyed. Franc, the leader, was not a big fan of the reactions his eyes caused.

Franc Cuvier turned his vision to the other five members of his party. Currently they were arguing about what exactly they would find at Broken Sky Mountain.

“I certainly hope it’s not a dungeon that caused the uptick in mana concentration. The fact that we elves consider the mountain sacred, and would fight to the death to keep settlers from it, has kept the Emperor from expanding too far west.” grumbled Lyra the elven metal mage.

Lyra Fossey was short for an elf at only six feet and five inches tall. Her shiny, straight, and green hair was braided into a ponytail that reached her waist. Unlike most mages, she didn’t wear a robe, instead covering herself in thick leather armor, as being a metal mage allowed her to do more than cast from the back of the party formation. Her metal attribute hadn’t ostracized her from elven society, but had confounded the adults when she was a child. Most elves had attributes of wind, water, nature, light, lightning, sound, and weather. As such, she was often alone before joining Dungeon Reconnaissance.

“Why do you care if the Emperor expands to the west? If there is a dungeon, then the elves can no longer consider that area sacred. If the area is no longer sacred, then settling an area rich in resources would benefit the Empire as a whole. Aren’t elves supposed to be more logical than the other races?” queried Teri the gnomish gunner and item appraiser.

At two feet tall, Teri Gunner was the average gnome height. Gnomish heads were one fourth their total height and looked liked prunes with faces. Their hands and feet each had six appendages, all double jointed and fully opposable. Each digit contained four joints each. This made their fingers and toes double the length of the other races. In addition to their unusual features, Gnomish red irises didn’t help with other races sometimes mistaking them for monsters.

“Even if the Emperor and his Empire are the only thing currently keeping the Bug Lord at bay, he is a warmonger. The more resources the Empire gets, the less likely the elves, gnomes, naga, dragonians, dwarves, or other humans are to get their nations back.”

“The gnomes didn’t have a nation before the Emperor gave us a protectorate and neither did the naga. While we’re not the ultimate deciders of our fate, we have a lot more voice in that decision compared to before.”

“Now, now, you two. This isn’t time for debating politics. We were deciding how the increase in mana density was detected around the Broken Sky Mountain when it’s five hundred kilometers from the most outlying village.” interjected Peter their rogue, cartographer, and all around danger sensor.

Peter Song was short for a human at five feet. Otherwise he fit the perfect description of the average human. Short black hair with brown eyes, tanned skin, no beard, and a face with soft edges. Peter portrayed a confident man on the outside but was skittish and paranoid due to his Unique Skill: Danger Sense.

“The elves always keep their measuring devices focused on the Sacred Mountain.” Lyra proudly stated.

“Even if that is true, they are on the easternmost edge of the Empire and the least likely to detect anything.”

“If all the mana measuring devices are focused on the mountain, then even miniscule changes should be detected.”

“....Doesn’t the Empire require at least some of those to be directed towards the Bug Lord’s forces?”

“....I thought you said no politics.” said Lyra grumpily with folded arms.

Peter rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders at that.

“No matter how the mana concentration increase was detected or whether or not it is due to a dungeon, the fact of the matter is we were hired with the expectation that there is a dungeon. The question we should be asking is whether it’s a new dungeon or an old dungeon that has grown enough to finally be detected.” stated Charles, the monster tamer and appraiser.

Charles Kinsey stood five feet eleven inches with blonde hair that was almost white. Large scars ran across his face, a chunk of his nose and right ear were missing, and his eyes moved independently from one another, his left eye being a new gnomish invention with a red iris instead of his normal green iris. His muscles were lean which caused a lot of average citizens to underestimate him.

“I hope it’s a new dungeon. A newly born dungeon that can change the mana density enough for us to detect is likely to become a dungeon with great rewards and even better monsters to hunt.” said Duzzig, the dwarvish tank and defender, happily as he slammed his mug of ale onto the table.

Duzzig Obsidian stood three feet three inches tall, slightly over the average dwarf. His ginger head of hair and ginger beard braided in meticulous fashion. When asked how he had the time to do his meticulous hairstyle in the morning, he laughed and said his seven daughters did it for him. Even with their width, high muscle density, and low center of mass, it was hard for dwarves to become tanks due to their height. Duzzig overcame his problematic height with his innate mana attribute, endurance, and his technical expertise fostered over hundreds of years.

“I’m hoping for a fully grown old dungeon. Even if its long term benefits are less, what we need right now is help with the bug lord. The other dungeons produce materials, but there isn’t enough space or treasure to go around, at least on the lower floors that all adventurers can reach.” responded Franc finally entering the discussion.

Teri piped up, “I don’t really care if the dungeon is new or old. The most important resources will come from the mountain and the surrounding environments. We’ll finally have more farmland with the prairies to the west, since the south is filled with undead, the north is an ocean filled with high rank monsters, and the Bug Lord destroyed the Kingdom of Odysis.”

A moment of silence and gloom descended on the group at the mention of their former home.

“*cough* You talk about high rank monsters in the ocean to the north, Teri, but the Broken Sky Mountain most likely has just as many high rank monsters.” said Charles interrupting the bad mood.

“Hmm, you might be right,” Teri muttered, “I suppose that’s why the Prime Magus and the top elven mage are a part of this mission then?”

“Ailen said he was participating to make sure the mana density increase was due to a dungeon. However, I’m not sure he was telling me the whole truth.” answered Lyra with a frown.

“That’s enough chit chat,” growled Franc as he noticed the last of the cargo being loaded, “They’re almost done loading the airship, so finish your food and drinks and get ready to board.”

The group of six prepped for departure and efficiently cleaned their area leaving an exorbitant tip. They had surplus money compared to even other S+ rank adventurers. Ever since the fall of the Kingdom of Odysis, they had been directly employed by the Emperor to discover new dungeons.

Several hours later all passengers were on board. Formations activated across the hull of the ship along with several magic engines. The roar and clanking of the engines filled the plaza, and the airship lifted into the sky. Leaving the central plaza and a sea of towers behind, the airship headed westward to the Broken Sky Mountain.

✦✦✦✦✦

The initial roar of the engine had settled to a low hum for which Dungeon Reconnaissance was grateful. They could sleep through the low hum but not that roar. The trip would take ten days in total, half of what it would take by horse. If the airship didn’t take periodic stops to let the Prime Magus regain her mana, then the trip would have only taken five days. However, the expectation of strong monsters led to the Prime Magus retaining at least half of her mana.

At five days they stopped at the most outlying frontier village, and asked about any unusual occurrences in the area. The village chief, oddly unperturbed talking to the strongest mage in the Empire, said that there was nothing unusual beyond the normal monster attacks on the village. After staying a night in the village, the crew happy to drink alcohol at the inn, the airship continued on its journey.

On the last day of their journey, they received their first major resistance. Previously, there were some minor monster attacks from Buff Buffalo when the airship had settled onto the ground, but they were frightened away by the Prime Magus and Ailen.

What attacked them on the final day was a murder of Ravenous Crows, and a Crow King and Crow Queen leading them. The royal monsters had fifty foot wingspans and oozed dark mana. The closer to them, the dimmer the surrounding light. The Prime Magus and Ailen took the King and and Queen respectively, while the regiment of soldier and Dungeon Reconnaissance had to fight the murder of crows that numbered over a thousand.

Being prepared to fight flying monsters, the regiment was separated into archery, crossbow, and gnomish gunnery squads. Archers in front, crossbowman in the middle, and gunners in the back. Thus, the archers were on the main deck, the crossbowman were on the quarter deck, and the gunners were on the sterncastle deck. There was no mage squad as all military mages were a part of the front lines against the Bug Lord. The archers were tasked with firing into the densest areas of the murder. Crossbowman would hit the stragglers that the archers didn’t hit. The gunners targeted outliers on the edge of the murder and individuals that seemed stronger than the rest. While gunners didn’t have physical ammo, each shot used up enough mana that they were extremely expensive when using mana stones and mana hearts or ran out of mana quickly when using personal mana.

Each member of Dungeon Reconnaissance had their own way to fight flying beasts, but Teri and Lyra were the primary damage dealers.

Every second that went by and cock of Teri’s gun, a crow head would burst, the body would go limp, and start falling to the ground. The gnomish gunners that had run out of mana stared in wonder as they muttered, “Perfect Shot Teri.”

Spikes, arrows, and other pointed metal objects pierced through crow after crow turning them into a mist of blood and feathers. Lyra’s accuracy was far below Teri’s but she overcame bad accuracy with numbers. If a spike only pierced a wing, five more would come and turn the body into mincemeat.

Charles didn’t have the firepower of Teri and Lyra, but he summoned his Red Hawk, Stacy, and Silver Gryphon, Lioric, from his Tamer Home to fight. Stacy wasn’t much of a fighter and killed weak crows and stragglers while sticking close to Charles, who was riding Lioric. Using Lioric’s high maneuverability, Charles flew around the murder directing the crows closer together. This way the squads would hit more targets even with bad aim.

Lioric didn’t only act as a crow shepherd. He could slash apart multiple crows with a swing of his talons. Vicious tornados appeared with a flap of his wings shredding swaths of the murder apart. Beyond the physical sharpness of his talons, Lioric could send blades of wind from them for long distance attacks.

Peter was proficient with throwing knives, but being so high in the air, they would not be easy to retrieve. Instead, he waited on the deck of the airship, like Duzzig and Franc, as the ranged fighters wouldn’t be able to kill all the crows before they reached the airship. As the crows rushed towards the regiment and their two party members, Peter, Duzzig, and Franc stood in the way.

Duzzig stood at the front, braced his tower shield in his left hand, gripped his axe in his right, and taunted the crows, “You lame chickens have less worth than an old turd to a shiteater!” The veins in the crows eyes pulsed as they flew straight at Duzzig cawing in anger. He laughed as the weaker crows killed themselves on his shield and armor. His axe cleaving the heads of the more resilient ones.

With Duzzig in the center of a large swarm of crows, Peter and Franc took advantage and started slaughtering the enraged crows. Franc’s large greatsword didn’t so much cut the crows apart as smash them into pieces. The deck of the airship would need a thorough cleaning after the battle. Peter’s body swerved between flying crows their talons, bodies, and beaks missing him by centimeters. His twin daggers pierced the vital points of the crows as fast as he could, mainly focusing on the eyes, neck, and brain. He did nowhere near as much damage as a single swing of Franc’s greatsword did, but they could actually collect materials from the ones he killed.

A few of the crows had gotten past them and aimed for the regiment, but vines appeared from the pots stacked throughout the airship, grabbed the crows, squeezed them until they burst, and threw the remains off the ship.

Soon after, the entire sky surrounding the ship was surrounded in vines. The remaining murder of crows were slashed, swatted, and gripped into pieces until none remained. Afterwards, the vines returned to their pots and became normal looking plants.

At the front of the ship where the Prime Magus and Ailen were fighting, the orange and cherry trees that they had eaten from were now five times their original size with large mouths filled with multiple layers of sharp teeth. The two carnivorous trees were chowing down on the now dead King and Queen. The sound of flesh, sinew, and bone being torn apart and munched on didn’t phase the soldiers and adventurers as they had all seen much worse. The part they stared at was their first look at the Prime Magus’ magic.

Prime Magus Ruth Arber was well known as being the strongest mage in the Empire, but as she had never gone to battle and preferred to stay in her tower and research, the nature of her attribute and magic were unknown. At the initial stage of their voyage, they had wondered at the presence of so many plants on board. Most had guessed that the plants were related to Ruth in some way, but whether they were for her magic or her hobby they didn’t know. Although, those more familiar with mages could easily tell you the answer would almost always be both.

The trees finished their meal and shrunk back to normal trees. Very few on the ship ate oranges or cherries after that. It was decided to set the airship down right outside of the forest to take a break, let the Prime Magus regain her mana, and clean the now bloody and feathery deck. As the airship settled onto the ground, a brown bird with a white belly, and two long, golden feathers that extended from its head to the middle of its back perched on the railing of the ship.

The Prime Magus, an old woman with wrinkled skin, and Ailen, a beautiful, blue haired male elf, walked over to the bird.

As she did, the Prime Magus turned to the on edge crew and laughed, “It’s a beautiful and rare breed of bird, but harmless to us. Go back to your work and stop worrying.”

Franc had been wary of the bird, but the Prime Magus’ voice that reminded him of his late Great-Grandmother alayed those fears. He turned back to his party and started to tell them to get back to work but quickly stopped as he noticed Peter.

The man was pale as a ghost and his entire body was shaking. It seemed to take his entire will to keep standing and not piss himself. Franc grabbed Peter, hiding him from the rest of the crew, and brought him to their party’s shared room.

As Franc went below deck he ordered the rest of the party, “Finish your work, but watch the Prime Magus, Ailen, and that bird. Be discreet. I know the Prime Magus and Ailen will notice you watching, but make sure the crew doesn’t. Dismissed.”

Back in their room, Franck asked Peter why he sensed so much danger.

“You know I can’t tell if my unique skill is reacting to the opponent's ability to kill me or intent to kill me. If what the Prime Magus said was true, then it’s the bird’s ability to kill me. Which means that thing could eliminate all of us, even the Prime Magus.” Peter responded.

“It’s well known the Prime Magus is a SSS rank mage. If what you say is true, then….”

“That bird is likely an EX rank monster.”

The two stared at each other in ominous silence.

With a stutter Peter spoke up, “E-Even if it’s an EX rank monster, it didn’t seem to mean us harm. Most likely the mountain is its home, and wanted to know what we were doing here. However, Ailen and the Prime Magus didn’t seem surprised by its appearance.”

Franc grunted, “More questions, but we’re just here to meticulously categorize everything in the dungeon and rank it. When the bird leaves, I’ll come and get you. See ya, Peter.”

“See ya, Franc.”

Franc headed back up on deck, joined his party in their cleaning duties, and watched the discussion between the three heavy weights.

After a few hours, the EX rank bird flew away. Franc tried to catch any changes in facial expression on Ailen’s or the Prime Magus’ face, but they were far too practiced in politics for him to notice anything.

Ruth Arber expanded her voice with magic and addressed the crew, “We are close to what is most likely a new dungeon. We will start early tomorrow and hopefully find it by midday. As such, after you finish your duties, you have personal time the rest of today and tonight. Ailen and I will stand watch overnight in case of a similar attack as this morning. However, we don’t expect another attack, so enjoy yourselves without worry.”

Cheers rose from the crew as they quickened their cleaning and daily preparations.

Dungeon Reconnaissance retired to their room after cleaning to discuss the battle and the bird. They moved on quickly from the bird as there was nothing much they could do about it. Their discussion on proper party technique when fighting flocks of flying monsters lasted much longer as they didn’t have many chances to fight flying monsters in dungeons. The rest of the night they spent taking care of their weapons and armor, meditating, practicing, and gambling.

The next morning, the airship slowly flew along the base of the Broken Sky Mountain heading from North to South. When asked why they were starting at the base of the mountain instead of the forest, the Prime Magus responded that most dungeon entrances were attached to large walls, so they may as well start with the mountain. It was a pretty good reason, but Franc assumed the Prime Magus must have learned something from the bird. EX ranks were legends, and one thing all those legends had in common were the strength and intelligence of the EX ranks.

Spotters attempted to see the telltale blackness surrounded by a glow that was a dungeon entrance. A couple of hours after noon, an area with a few fallen trees and churned up dirt came into view. As the airship neared the area, the dungeon entrance was spotted situated up against the mountain.

Even with a couple toppled trees, there was no space for the airship to land. The wood cutters prepared to climb ladders down to make space, but the Prime Magus stopped them. She went down herself and instead of cutting them down, the trees uprooted themselves and slowly walked until there was enough room for an airship. Once the trees were far enough away, they rerooted themselves. She did allow the wood cutters to process the already fallen trees, but ordered them to not cut any others.

Ruth Arber stared at the dungeon entrance for a couple of seconds before heading to the forest to meditate.

As the airship settled onto the ground, Dungeon Reconnaissance got off first. They wanted to get through the first floor before it got too dark. They said their goodbyes to the crew and notified Ailen about entering the dungeon as the Prime Magus was in the forest. Ailen raised no objection and wished them luck.

As they entered the ominous black portal into the dungeon, the airship crew was setting up tents and preparing for an extended stay. Scouts were sent out to get a lay of the land and study what had happened in the area around the dungeon. With a dungeon present, the Empire was certain to start settling. However, most didn’t notice that settling near the mountain would be much harder than they originally thought.