Jacob

Standing at the entrance to the dungeon, amidst the crowd of other participating teams, I felt a little nervous. I'd heard about the skeleton showing up at the entrance, covered in blood and injuries. The fact that it had chased someone out of the dungeon, and then killed them was more than a little frightening. That kind of determination wasn't something I was entirely certain I could measure up to. A few people had actually managed to get a decent look at the skeleton before it fled back inside.

"Broken Skull... That's the monster?" I couldn't help but mutter to myself, wondering just what we would find down there in the dark.

A hand clapped me on the shoulder, and I look up at Vance, who was grinning at me. "You worry too much. We'll be fine. If we see the bastard, I'll smash him myself." He spoke with a chuckle, hefting his heavy club over his shoulder. It didn't make me feel any less nervous, but I gave him a slight smile anyways.

"You'll only smash it if I don't turn it to ash first." Serena grinned as she spoke, the ruby on her staff glinting in the morning sunlight. Vance's expression became completely serious as he turned to look at her, before raising his hand to point at her. "Fake." He didn't waver once in his emotional control, until he turned around and doubled over laughing. Serena just frowned in his direction.

At least it diffuses the tension for them.

I shook my head, a wry grin forming on my face, before looking back toward the front of the crowd. Various other conversations that had been taking place died down as a few guild officials stepped in front of everyone, one of them even bringing a crate to stand on. One of them stepped forward, wearing what looked to be ceremonial armor. It was easy to see that he wouldn't be joining us on this raid, despite the fact that several of the more experienced teams were being sent to the first few floors.

"My name is Peter Steelwind, and I'm sure you all know me as the leader of the Chilaak branch of the Guild of Dungeon Exploration! I am here to personally thank you for participating in today's upcoming raid! For those of you who didn't recieve the full briefing, I'm here to tell you now, that what you're doing is of the utmost importance to the safety of this city, and of the Kingdom of Nevaya! On behalf of this city, this kingdom, and this continent, I thank you for your service, and your sacrifice! Our analyst will explain the specific details of this raid, and our scribes will provide a map detailing the areas that your targets reside in! William, if you would!" Peter stepped back, pausing in his speech as a rather unkempt man dressed in scholarly clothing stepped onto the crate, holding what looked to be an open book in his hands.

"Thank you all for coming here today! My name is William Segorson, and I'm the senior analyst for the Chilaak branch of the Guild. Today, your goal is to sweep the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth floors! It's expected that once past the second floor, the difficulty of this task will increase greatly, as the monsters from the third and fourth floor have shown extreme shifts in behavior, along with tactics previously unheard of at these levels! As such, it is recommended that after the second level, you should show caution against monsters both usual and unusual!" The analyst took a breath, flipping a page before he went on.

"Your main target during these sweeps is the same skeleton that was sighted yesterday, when the dungeoneer was killed. That dungeoneer was a scout of ours, hired to find the location of these unique monsters! While his death was indeed tragic, he managed to provide the location posthumously, via a crudely drawn map! As such, the scribes have since adapted this, and you will have a more precise location to head to on both the third and fourth floors! The target skeleton was inspected, and its name is Broken Skull! Should you see this unique enemy, it is advised that you do not engage it with less than three teams, as it was reported to have defeated a total of at least two dungeon teams within a short time frame! If you defeat this skeleton and bring back proof of its death, then your dungeon team will be rewarded with an extra one thousand gold pieces, as per Guild orders!" The analyst wasn't looking at us as he spoke, instead looking at the book as if reading from a script.

Several murmurs rippled through all the teams at the mention of the extra reward. However, I knew it would only be the truly inexperienced who would abandon all pretense of discipline in order to try and get the extra money. I looked over at Vance, who seemed to be drooling at the thought of that much money.

Okay, maybe we're not all disciplined enough.

I elbowed him in the side once. "Don't even think about it. If we're lucky, we won't have to fight that one ourselves." Getting a decent amount of money from this is good enough for us. It'd set us up to get down to the sixth floor. The rumor that there weren't many monsters down there meant we'd be able to get a look at it through this raid, and make sure it was actually one of the safe floors.

"But think about how much money we'd get if we handed in his head!" Vance shot back, his expression pleading with me to reconsider. I shook my head, as the analyst went on, talking about how from a scant few reports, the skeletons had shown a tendency to ambush, rather than engage directly. "Think about it. Can we really handle something that's capable of tearing through two teams in a short amount of time? I don't want to risk that. Besides, why would they be calling in the big teams if we could handle something that powerful?" Several other conversations similar to my own were happening amidst the crowd, although the analyst didn't seem perturbed by the commotion. Vance sighed once before placing the end of his club on the ground, and leaning against it.

"...Likely that they won't engage you all at once, but as the senior analyst of this Catastrophe Dungeon, I would like to advise you all to remain vigilant." The analyst stepped down from the crate, as Peter stepped forward again.

"Once again, I would like to thank all of you for your bravery, your valor, and your determination. Know that Chilaak, and the Kingdom of Nevaya, owe you a great debt for what you are all about to undertake! Now, that's enough from me! Before you enter the dungeon to begin the raid, please visit the scribes next to the entrance, and get a map of each floor for your respective teams! Good luck, and may the blessings of the Gods be with you!" The guild master gestured toward a few people who were standing near the entrance, with bags at their sides, filled with scrolls that I assumed were the maps we would be given.

It didn't take long for us to start filtering into the dungeon, each team taking a total of five scrolls. I didn't even want to know how they'd managed to create so many in such a short amount of time, but I imagined that the dark circles under the eyes of the scribes we passed had something to do with it.

The first floor looked the same as always, but the air just felt different. It felt like something was watching us as we passed by the scarecrows that had been there since the dungeon was discovered. The whole floor was silent, save for the sound of our footsteps as we passed. All the floors down to the tenth had been cleared of other dungeon teams so that we wouldn't have anyone interfering with our work.

The second floor was a bit eerie at first, but soon after most of the other teams had split up to hunt down all the skeletons on the floor, things became fairly easy. The skeletons on the second floor hadn't changed much over the past few months, aside from having a lower population. Vance was able to keep most of them busy while I lined up a decent shot, and Serena fired off a few bolts of fire.

The sounds of combat rang throughout the second floor, metal and spell crashing against bone. If I had to guess, it had only taken a little over an hour for the second floor to be wiped clean of the undead, before everyone met back up at the stairs to the third floor. Things had gone smoothly, with not a single armed skeleton showing up.

However, this changed the moment we got down onto the third floor. Before we could even split up, three people had multiple arrows sticking out of their chests, necks, and even their heads. All I could hear at that moment were the sounds of three bodies hitting the ground, and bones running away, not bothering to stick around after firing a single volley of arrows.

"Clerics!" Someone yelled, and several people shoved their way forward to check the three who had been hit, Lilly among the clerics checking on them. Each of the ones hit was from a different team. One by one, the three were confirmed to have been killed before the clerics could do anything. A few bold rangers made to follow, but after a few minutes, all but two of them came back. At the question of where the other two were, they just shook their heads.

I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. Looking to my left, I saw Nick, from Nightshade. He was staring at the bodies with what I could only describe as the expression of a war veteran who lost too many friends.

"Watch your ass from now on. We're in their home now."