Colt and I get ready quickly, dressing in leather armor made by Becky. The enchantments on it are my work, however. I’m the best Enchanter we have after all.

Checking through my hold, I make sure I have all the potions and extra ingredients we planned to carry inside. Unfortunately, between stocking the shop and the growth rate of some plants, our supplies are somewhat limited once split between everyone.

Colt is holding all of the food stores in his storage, so he’ll cook meals for everyone if we don’t just drink ration potions, a complication mostly due to Becky’s terms of agreement for going to the dungeon.

The ration potions don’t taste bad per se, but the amount of slime used in increasing their dosage count makes them somewhat unpalatable.

Heading downstairs, everyone is already here and restocking their respective shop areas.

“Morning, Pasivier. Are you gonna be okay minding the store on your own?”

“Good morning, Lucas. I assure you, I am a Fae of many talents. I will be just fine.”

“Fair enough.” Greeting everyone else, Cassandra approaches me.

“As expected, we had some products go missing yesterday. Oddly enough, an inordinately high amount of the stealing was healing and mana potions. I don’t normally do alchemy aside from my candies but… I spent some time last night to restock those. Pasivier assures me he can make potions that match our quality while we’re gone, but your weapons might be in short supply.”

“That’s fine, we shouldn’t be gone too long anyway. Just in and out, right? Kill the boss, loot the dungeon, and we’re gone.”

“That’s the plan, but we can’t scout the dungeon at all. According to those who tried, it’s covered in a thick fog and the one scout that went in never came out.” Cassandra looks at all her notes, frowning.

“Yeah, as far as I know, dungeons can’t be left by will alone unless you’re way higher level than it. That’s what Ilmarinen told me at least. That’s why high-level people move to low-level dungeons. It’s a pretty peaceful life because the monsters might as well be bugs to them and they can leave whenever they want.”

“That makes sense. I imagine their home planets become pretty hostile after a while, if not overpopulated too. Think we’ll see anyone living in this dungeon?”

“From what Ilmarinen told me, probably not. The Grand Harbor dungeon is more of a generalist dungeon. Because the Mount Katahdin dungeon is based on our actual planet, it’s a newer dungeon so no one has likely found a secret entrance to it yet.”

“What happened to all the people in the Grand Harbor when you cleared the dungeon anyway?”

“Nothing special, actually. The dungeon will just slowly repopulate itself over time I guess. If anything, we removed some pests from the dungeon dwellers’ lives for a bit.”

“Think you could find that dungeon entrance again then? Could be helpful to use as a training grounds of sorts, especially because it’s certainly closer than Mount Katahdin with that portal door…”

“We could certainly try to find it when we come back. It sounds like a good idea.”

A knock at the door disrupts our conversation so I go to answer it while calling out to Adreanell to handle feeding all the slimes before we leave.

Opening the door, the rest of our dungeon party is waiting outside. Not everyone has met everyone except for me and Cassandra, so I go through some introductions.

“Okay, everyone, we’re going to be taking on this dungeon together so we need to know everyone’s capabilities. Just your main combat Talent and then some of your tactics should suffice. I’ll start.

“I’m Lucas, I’m an Anchorist, so I use an anchor as a weapon, surprise surprise. I like to mix magic into my fighting too, mostly water and lightning magic but a little bit of fire sometimes too. I’ll be our high damage single target melee fighter for the most part, basically.”

Looking to Colt, he smiles at everyone. “Hey there, I’m Colt. I’m a Mage and a Fae. Basically, all you need to know about that is it makes my hair green and I’m better at natural magicks. I use nature, earth, and wind magick mostly so I’ll be some of our main crowd control but I can be a heavy hitter too. I specialize in manipulating the battlefield to our advantage.”

Colt looks to Adreanell next.

“Hey, everyone! I’m Adreanell and I’m a Numismatist. That’s a fancy word for a coin collector. I’m also a Timekeeper, so I have a few Skills that can speed you up or slow down enemies. My coins let me do a lot of AoE damage too so I can help control large crowds of weaker monsters. Oh and recently I’ve been practicing with Photomancy a lot.”

She nods to Cassandra who turns to address all of the new individuals.

“Hi there, Cassandra. I’m a Candy Witch. Basically a fusion of an alchemist Talent with a Mage Talent, just a little more specialized. I make special candies that give various buffs, I’ll brief you on those later. Because I’m a witch as well, I can use curses and hexes on monsters to weaken them. I don’t have a ton of direct combat Skills from my Talent, but I’ve practiced in elemental magic enough to know what I’m doing.”

She looks to Becky who in turn looks intently at everyone else.

“I’m Becky. I’m a Hair Stylist and more recently a Fashionista. According to Lucas, I’m kind of like an assassin class in an RPG game. I like to cut bitches, basically.” She gestures that with her scissors, Trimming a groove into the ground in front of her.

“My Fashionista Talent lets me control fabrics so I’ve been practicing with that a lot too. You’ll see, I’m pretty fuckin lit. Oh, and my hair is magic.” She lets her Magical Locks rise up, showing her innate control of her hair. “So, you now, guy with the bow.”

She gestures to Pierce, who stands a little taller, running a hand through his quiff of brunette hair.

“Hello there, I’m Pierce. I’m an Archery Instructor. I can set targets on enemies with one of my Skills that will let you do extra damage to them and I have a Perk that I can buff you with called Aim Assist. It’ll boost your accuracy. I’m not huge on magic but that just means I have more mana to use on this bow Lucas made me.”

He holds up the Mollustacatto, letting the crab claw bow expand to full size. “It fires sound arrows which can stun enemies if I put enough power into it. Anyway, next?” He looks to the woman standing beside him.

“Hi, I’m Kayla. I’m a Glassblower and Mage. I’ve learned to combine the two so I use a lot of superheated glass magic which should be effective on the mostly wind and ice attuned monsters we think inhabit the dungeon. My husband is with us as well.”

She gestures towards a red-haired man wearing some thick leather armor that’s dyed completely white.

“I’m Caleb, Kayla’s husband but she said that already. I’ll be your secondary warrior-type. My main combat Talent is Chef and Lucas here made me my weapon.” He holds up a massive orange cleaver that’s nearly as long as his body, giving everyone a moment to Inspect his work. I do as well just to admire it again.

The Taste Tester

Quality: High

Traits: Nutrition, Growth, Sear

Description: A massive cleaver made of searing voracitite.The metal that makes up this cleaver will grow in response to what is consumed. As a result, it will become larger, longer, sharper, and even more ravenous. Due to the functional nature of this weapon as a cooking implement, it consumes meat most efficiently. The strongest meat this metal has consumed is fire-attuned, giving the metal unique burning properties.

“As you can see, I can do this with it.” The metal heats up, becoming brighter orange than before. He cleaves it through the earth in front of us, leaving scorch marks in its wake.

“My specialty is in cooking a monster as I fight it. I can turn the meat into magical food on the go which will provide buffs when eaten.”

“Wow, I’m a Chef too but I didn’t weaponize the Talent at all. We’ll have to talk about that later.” Colt smiles at Caleb.

“I’d love to. It’s hard to find proper Chefs nowadays. I can’t tell you how much tough monster meat I’ve eaten just to be polite. Anyway, we still have two more introductions to get through and we should get going soon.”

Next, the girl standing next to Caleb steps forward. She’s wearing leather armor like most of us and has sandy blonde hair that’s pulled into a tight bun.

“Hi, I’m Erika. My main combat Talent is Botanist but I also worked as a Forest Ranger so that’s a Talent I have as well. I’m really good at tracking both plants and animals so I’ll be doing most of our scouting work.

“I was never much of a marksman, unfortunately, so I mostly use a hunting knife. Lucas made me a whip as well, I’ll let you all Inspect that. It works for me well because I can hide while the poison effect does all the work.” She holds out the whip I made for her. She transforms it from its ivy form into the nettle form.

Toxitail

Quality: Medium

Traits: Botanical Shapeshifting, Burning Poison

Description: This whip made of metalnettle is capable of shifting between ivy creepers to wrap around the body and lengthened nettles to poison the target.

“That’s about it for me. I’m not the best fighter out of any of us but I can keep a look out for monsters and give us advanced warning. I’ll also be able to help track down more supplies for us in the dungeon hopefully. So, last person is um… I apologize but I’ve forgotten your name.”

She looks to the man standing next to her. He looks to be about the same age as me and Colt, but that doesn’t mean much anymore with stats basically reverse-aging everyone to their physical prime.

There’s a strangely mystical aura about him and he’s wearing heavy robes with starry designs and magic circles on them. His hair is navy blue, similar to the night sky just as dusk is ending.

“I am Vincent. My main Talent is not so much a combat Talent, but a support Talent. I am a Tarot Reader. Unfortunately, I have extremely limited divination capabilities, but I can use the major and minor arcana to apply buffs or debuffs to you or our enemies. I am a mage as a secondary Talent, but my main abilities lie within the cards.”

“Perfect, everyone is introduced. We can talk strategy once we’re on our way.” Making sure to memorize everyone’s names, I repeat them in my head several times.

“That begs the question, how are we getting to the dungeon?” Vincent glances around the yard as if it will hold the answer.

“I’m glad you asked. Colt, if you’ll do the honors?”

“Happily.” He gestures towards a flat expanse of our yard, a green glow appearing around his hands. The earth breaks open as two stone slabs reveal themselves under a small layer of dirt. The slabs slide to the sides as a massive wooden structure rises up from a hole in the ground.

“We wanted to keep this part a surprise for you guys. Figured it would be more exciting that way.” Smiling at them, they look on in shock as a full wooden ship rises up on a stone platform in the ground.

With a wave of his hand, all the dirt clears off of the ship, leaving it in pristine condition.

“...How exactly are we getting to a mountain on a ship, Lucas?” Kayla tilts her head in confusion.

“I’ll show you. Becky, Adreanell, Cassandra? If you’ll do the honors with me?”

They nod and we all jump up onto the ship. Grasping fabric that’s attached to various points of the ship with access holes, we poke our arms inside and begin casting Pyromancy.

Slowly, the heated air rises inside the heavily enchanted cloth, expanding it outward. We get everyone on to the ship before fully inflating as they finally get the idea.

“A flying ship! This is incredible!” Erika looks off the port side of the ship, holding on to the guard rail.

All of us continue to burn through our mana a bit to get the ship into the air. Lightweight runes on the wood as well as teletite nails allow it to be lifted more easily than it would be otherwise. Kayla helps out, producing her own flame and heating the air with us.

Finally, the blimp expands to full size and the ship takes off from the ground. We have a rough map of where to go from Gabe, but Cassandra and Colt will be handling most of the navigation on the trip.

With my mana regen and the sheer size of my mana pool, I’ll keep the air heated inside the blimp as needed. The enchantments on the cloth help to keep a lot of the heat inside, however, so I won’t be needed much past this initial filling.

Our projected trip time is about ten hours of flight. Colt’s Aeromancy is the main propelling.

Once we’re high enough in the air, we lower our sails and tie them down. Following Ilmarinen’s instructions on how to prepare a ship for sailing, we do basically the same but for flying instead.

The ship has a spacious lower deck in case we want to get out of the winds this high in the sky, but with stats, everyone is fairly comfortable in the cold. We need to talk strategy on the trip anyway, so we elect to stay on the main deck as Colt and Cassandra have to be there.

With a sudden lurch and a gust of wind, the sails billow out and Colt guides us through the air toward Mount Katahdin.

Getting over the initial excitement, all of us gather to discuss strategy. We confer more specifically on our personal capabilities and come up with plans. Colt maintains course with Cassandra but they both contribute to the conversation regardless.

Pierce and Erika keep sharp eyes out for any flying monsters and Colt creates a cloud cover for the ship with my help until we’re safe once more.

After discussion for a bit, we have some initial plans. Understandably, Caleb and I will take the front line in fights. We’re the most physically durable and capable of directly taking on monsters.

Erika will find the monsters so we can get the drop on them or just sneak around if possible. Kayla and Pierce will provide damage at range, especially with breaking through high-defense targets while Colt will lock down enemies with his magick.

Adreanell will be there to cover for the smaller units en masse or to strike down larger targets with her Photomancy. She can also provide some level of support with her Timekeeper Talent’s Skills.

Cassandra will provide candies as necessary as well as debuffing enemies to make them easier to fight. She’ll work in tandem with Vincent on this front, but her debuffs will allow Vincent to focus mostly on buffing Caleb and I as we’ll be taking the most damage in all likelihood.

Becky will sneak around waiting for opportunities to take out monsters in single blows if she can. Otherwise, she can function for crowd control or high DPS in general.

The rest of the trip covers mostly small bits of strategy like how we can most effectively combine our Skills and Perks together in combat. We spar a little bit but it begins to mess with the ship's direction if we use too much force, so we can’t do much.

Just as I’m about to go below deck and take a nap, Adreanell calls out. “I see it!”

Running to where she’s standing on the forecastle of the ship, I spot the peak of a mountain piercing a thick bank of fog. It gleams with ice at the top, shining brightly in the afternoon sun.

“I can almost see… snow flurries through the fog.” Erika squints at what must be the dungeon. “It’s the middle of summer, how is it snowing in there?”

“Just the dungeon type I guess. Anyway, let’s begin our descent.” Activating some dark purple metal panels on the ship, they expand in size and our ship slowly begins to drift toward the ground.

“How are we going down? You didn’t let any air out of the blimp.” Vincent stares up at it to confirm that he’s not lying.

“Bulkite siding for the ship. It’s a metal made with growth and heavyweight aspects. Once it expands, it gets heavier, so it works like a modular ballast for the ship. I’ll let the air out of the blimp once we’re on the ground, but it’s safer to descend this way because we can rise back up quickly if we need to.”

“Oh. Very well then, carry on.” He waves a hand and goes off to talk with the others. Maintaining my connection to the bulkite, we eventually land about thirty minutes later.

Colt creates another hole in the ground with a similar stone platform and door setup to bury the ship while the rest of us go to inspect the fog wall of the dungeon. Strangely, we can’t pierce it or walk through it at all until we find a doorway made of fog.

Looking through it, there’s even more fog within, but we can make out the faintest hints of snow flurries as well. Everyone checks their equipment to make sure the heating runes are operational.

We’re all quite resistant to the extremes of temperature due to our Endurance, but it never hurts to be careful.

Once Colt finishes, we all look at each other and walk into the dungeon. Without even thinking about it, I hold my breath as I walk through the cloudbank. It’s quite cold to the touch, but not to the extent that it causes frost to build up on me or anything.

Just as we all step through the fog, a set of three young voices makes my heart drop.

“Yeah! Let’s conquer this dungeon!”

“Wahoo!”

“Guys, I told you this was a bad idea!”

Turning around, Charlie, the Cartoonist is standing in front of Daniel and Maria, Gabe’s children, with his hands on his hips in a heroic pose.

“Oh fuck.”