Mur was red in the face and spluttering.“T-two days? It only took you two days?”

“Hooh...” Heather let out a sound of amazement. “I expected nothing less from you three.”

“Truly amazing,” Ern said.

Vyne wore an expression that read: Of course it’s amazing, my master completed it after all.

Mur was still in a state of shock. “How! How is that possible?”

Erebus tilted his head and smiled, but it had a certain ferociousness to it. “Secret.”

Luke laughed. “I do believe we have to hold up on our side of the bet and allow you to join in on our dungeon exploration.”

Once more, childish glee appeared on Erebus’ face. “We’ve never explored a dungeon before.”

“Really?” Heather laughed boisterously. “Well, you’ll get to learn from a pro!”

The two began to laugh.

“You must’ve done this through trickery,” Mur spat.

“We didn’t,” Tear said in a stern voice. “Are you implying that we cheated?” She began to release her bloodlust. If her master gave her the word, Tear would tear off his head without hesitation.

But Tear, technically, you did trick them.

“Oh, stop being a sore loser, you old bear!” Heather ‘patted’ him on the back. “We ain’t got nothing to lose with them joining in! Anyway, I want people who can reach Tier 5 within two days on my team! Haha!”

“We’ll head out tomorrow,” Luke said, covering his ears. The poor man was seated next to Heather as she laughed. “It’s a dungeon located near the sea. They call it the Passageway because its location.”

“I’ve heard of that place before,” Vyne said. “It’s said to be a Demon ranked dungeon.”

Luke made a sound of agreement. “The monsters there are Epic rank and lower, there isn’t actually any Demon rank monsters. It’s just because there’s a lot of them that the danger is upped.”

“I see,” Vyne said. The system that the humans had created made the classification of things easier, that was for sure.

The trio left after Erebus was satisfied after seeing Mur’s miserable face. They had embarrassed him like Erebus wanted.

By the way, the reason why there isn’t a problem with lower Tiers entering higher rank dungeons is because as long as they enter with a party that’s the Quester equivalent or higher of the dungeon’s rank.

Since Heather and co. were Tier 8, there wasn’t a problem with the trio joining in.

“This will be exciting,” Tear said as they unlocked the door to their room. “My clan had a dungeon in our lands but I never got the opportunity to explore it.”

“What happened?” Vyne questioned. Even after knowing her for a few centuries, he had no idea what her background was other than that she was a High Human.

Tear made a face and Vyne didn’t pry into it. Perhaps if he cared a little more about her existence, he would have asked for her to go into greater detail.

But he didn’t. He still evaluated her as a lower-life form (pile of feces) so he didn’t really care about her past in the slightest.

Erebus, since he already knew of her past, didn’t have any reason to ask her to elaborate either.

They all went to their beds to sleep for the first time in two days. None of them were exhausted in the slightest, but they didn’t have anything else to do other than sleep.

On this night, however, Vyne didn’t go out to have fun and Tear stayed in her bed. Even though, they both very much wanted to.

When morning came in the form of buzzing voices and warm sunlight, the trio awoke with no difficulty. It could almost make a person jealous how easily they got up and began their morning routine.

The only thing that changed was Tear putting on an outfit that didn’t reveal 70% of her body. Instead, she went with brown leather pants, a cream colored jacket, and the same shoes as before. She always plaited her hair and wrapped it into a bulky bun.

She did this because she believed the dungeon would require gear much more suitable. Her body wasn’t nearly indestructible like Vyne and Erebus, so she needed some sort of protection.

“Heather and the others told us to meet them outside of town, they already have magic carriages prepared.”

Vyne’s disapproving frown once again formed on his face. “Carriages?”

“They’re only human,” was Erebus’ logical answer.

For the trio, carriages would do nothing but slow them down. But for normal humans, a magic carriage would be the fastest way of travel.

Magic carriages looked like normal carriages, but they weren’t. Like the name implies, they were fueled by magic. It had a magic circle where typically a mage would fill with their mana, allowing the carriage to move. It had two horses made of metal that when mana was injected into them, would move at 20mph.

But since the carriages were exhausting for a single mage to use for the entire trip, they would typically have two to three mages who would change shifts to provide fuel for the carriage to move, that way the mage wouldn’t collapse.

For humans, it was useful. For creatures like Vyne, it was slow. Painfully so.

“Hello Erebus, Vyne!” Heather greeted when the trio arrived. “Woah...” she rubbed her eyes and stared at Tear. “Who’s this!”

“Hah.” Tear let out a laugh that implied she didn’t find Heather funny at all.

“Pleasure to see you, Tear,” Ern said, sensing the irritated aura Tear was beginning to give off.

“You’re decent, I guess,” Tear responded with no hesitation.

Ern displayed an expression of surprise before laughing calmly. “Haha... do you hate me or something?”

Tear looked at her with an unreadable expression. “Not really. Though, I don’t like you either. I wouldn’t really care if you happened to die in the dungeon.”

“Haha...” Ern wasn’t sure how to take that.

The atmosphere had changed into that of awkwardness.

Luke, sensing this, said, “Let’s get moving. I want to get to the dungeon before nightfall.”

Praise our Savior Luke for ending the awkward silence!

Everyone nodded and boarded the carriage. It was a quick loading because Erebus, Vyne, and Tear had brought nothing but a change of clothes, and the others had already begun packing before the trio had arrived.

“To the Passageway!” Luke shouted, and began pouring mana into the magic circle.

“To the Passageway!” six voices chirped back in unison.

The carriage ride consisted of Tear complaining over Heather dominating Erebus’ attention. As she had plopped right in the middle of Erebus and Tear. Then, when Tear would complain, Vyne would respond with: “Shut up, whiny woman.”

The others would laugh and say what a close relationship they had.

The ride also contained Heather and co. telling about their younger days (save for Mur who was sulking silently) and all the crazy things that happened to them. Ern sometimes gave stories about her hometown, which would gift her piercing stares from Tear.

The stares were neither pleasant nor menacing. Nonetheless, it made Ern squirm.

Luke and Ern switched powering the carriage after an hour, and they continued doing so. Which lead to Luke resting his arm on Vyne’s shoulder. Vyne resisted the urge to tear off Luke’s arm. He thought that after this, his master should praise him.

The head pat his master had given him when they reached Tier 5 renewed all of his motivation. Being praised by Master was truly magnificent.

Yes, to receive that praise, he would resist the urge to tear Luke apart limb by limb... Vyne closed his eyes and imagined what Luke’s screams of pain would sound like.

Luke, even though he had no idea such thoughts were going through Vyne’s head, found himself retracting his arm due to a strange feeling.

When they arrived at the Passageway, the sky was beginning to darken. Since they weren’t moving at full speed for the sake of preserving energy, it had taken them quite some time.

They gout of of the carriage and stretched their legs. Even though they had taken a couple breaks along the way, they weren’t long enough to truly relax their muscles.

“We’ll rest tonight and then enter the dungeon first thing in the morning. Mur will handle the first watch,” Luke said after casting a magic that made the carriage shrink to a size that fit in the palm of his hand. Luke had adapted the role of the leader for their Quest.

Mur nodded and unwrapped the spear he had on his back, he then leaned against a tree as the others began setting up camp.

“Tear, allow me to help you with that,” Ern said, walking over to Tear who was currently cooking some stew.

Tear gave Ern the same look you give a child who doesn’t know any better. “It’s fine. I got it.”

“No, please, allow me to help, the others are all busy and I can’t sit around doing nothing.”

Tear opened her mouth to say something but Vyne intervened, “Tear doesn’t like cooking with others. She prefers to do it on her own.”

Realization dawned on Ern’s face. “I apologize, then. I didn’t know it was your personal preference.”

Tear shrugged. “It’s okay.”

What Vyne told Ern was a lie. Tear just didn’t want to be close to Ern, and he picked up on that. No matter how much he claimed to hate her, he still looked out for her.

How adorable.

Erebus was thinking that as he watched the exchange. To him, Vyne and Tear were rather close friends, even though they insulted each other constantly.

They respected(?) each other’s boundaries.

“Tomorrow, you’ll see some amazing things,” Heather said, materializing next to Erebus. Her voice was surprisingly soft and carried no trace of its usual boisterous nature.

Erebus turned his head at this.

“Dungeons are splendid,” she explained, sitting down cross-legged next to him. “They were formed naturally a very long time ago. It is hypothesized that they were the homes of the first race.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “That’s why they’re so coveted. Actually, one time at the bottom of a dungeon, a sleeping dragon was found. I believe her name was Azure.”

That was a name he hadn’t heard in a while.

“That happened four hundred years ago? I think. She allowed us weaker races to take her belongings because she claimed that she had ‘more than this small amount’. Can you believe that?”

Erebus laughed quietly. “I cannot even fathom it.”

I'm really excited to write these upcoming chapters. This is where all the fun starts... Ohoho! I hope you darlings enjoyed.