“So these are the famous adventurers that I’ve heard you talk so much about?” Matt asked Bob, watching as the seemingly well-armed all Baberan-like woman defeated yet another of his ever so beautiful megaspider’s.

“Yes, master”Bob said. “B to c ranker’s, there leader being in the lower A ranks if i’m not mistaken”

“Ok, so that means there level 50-60” Matt said thinking, dredging up all he remembered from Bob’s many boring lectures on the subject. “So how do I stop them?”

“.......”

“Bob, how do I stop them?”

“You don’t, master, they’re too powerful, there’s nothing you can do…..” Bob said, seeming afraid, to Matt at least, for the first time ever. “....but not to worry,” Bob said after the second iterative dread-filled silence. “From what I can see from here they look like a scout team. You should be fine as long as you don’t do anything to piss them.Though not like you could do anything to them even if you wanted to. Sorry master but you're just too new to do anything to stop them”.

‘We’ll see about that’ Matt thought, cutting the remaining 75 out of 10 or so bugs that he had remaining into 2 sections intending to send one section after the group, and one after the gigantic green, yellow, red-haired devil-like woman only to find himself unable to do so.

‘What the hell’ “Bob why can’t I control my bugs”

“Agh that '' Bob said. “Sorry master, I know I should have told you but I thought it better for you to experience it for yourself”.

“What?Told me what?” Matt asked, almost screaming at this point.

“About the area that pervades living beings, preventing you or any dungeon for that matter from using any active abilities or skill whilst in your dungeon, sorry………….”

‘Agh Bob………………….’

‘I swear if there were any traps in this dam dungeon then he’d be tripping all over them’, Jaret thought watching Alen, the noob that he was, as he was hit by bit by one of the dungeon’s insectile snakes only for it bounce off the shield that abb’s had, at his insistence, had created for the noob's sake.

‘I mean why was the Guildmaster so insistent that we take him on. He knows I hate nobles. I mean that’s what it is. Isn’t it…….’ Jaret thought swerving to avoid a fireball that Abb’s had sent his way.

Isn’t. it....he’s some noble brat whose daddy paid the guild a huge amount of coin to power level him’ he irately thought, twisting and turning, turning his body to one side as he did so in the effort of jumping out of the way of one of the gigantic spiders, that the system had aptly named a Giaspider, that had suddenly appeared out from the ceiling and tried to jump him, slicing through it with Lightbringer, his epic ranked sword and most prized possession, like it was nothing, like the mere paperweight that it was, receiving nothing but a measly 1EP point(energy point) for his troubles.

'It’s obvious, isn’t it...How else could a noob like him have such expensive stuff? I swear if I didn’t know any better I would think his sword to be of expert level quality, He thought, watching as the young almost kidlike noob continued to mess about with his Dam Gold-filled sword that he thought to be at least a High journeyman grade Item if not greater, engraved as it was with at least a dozen or more High apprentice grade ruins on its diamond filled pompol alone, wailing it around as he was like it was some dam toy.

‘Though surely not,’ He thought, Even nobles weren’t stupid enough to waste a master level item like it was some mere paperweight, ‘Not on a sutch noob like him at least’ No.No. More likely the sword was some Expert grade item. Though one crafted by some genius in-house crafter he expected though.

‘Hmph.’ The very sounds sickened him, filling him with anger and rage both.

How the nobles could afford such as reference on one of their own and yet still they couldn’t even be bothered to pay an ounce of an ounce of upkeep towards their various private armies, ‘the men and women who fight for them’. , bleeding,dying for them in their many, many wars. ‘All for their own petty greed, jealousy or rage both, It sickens me how they can get away with such things and yet not face an ounce of guilt. It sickens me’.

How they could sleep at night was beyond him.

'Oh, divine light, why must you test me so...' He thought holding Lightbraker ever tighter, glancing to Abb’s side away from the noble noob and all he presented, in the effort of stopping himself before he did something that he could not come back from.

"This way..." Abb's said eyes half-open having seemingly caught onto what he wanted off her, pointing to the cave on the left side as she did so, keeping half her focus as she was on the massive mental map that her scan had surlily created for her or at least that’s how he assumed it to be.

"Are you sure?" Jaret asked doubt in his face and voice, doubting her abilities, something that would usually have caused her to go into a rage though this time she did not as the status between them forbidden such things.

"Yes I'm sure," Abb’s said, seemingly annoyed by how he kept questioning her methods.. ", Now come on we don't have all day,"

"Ok, Ok. Here we go," He said, stepping to where she directed him, keeping a careful eye on the young ignoble noob as he did so. Filled with the fatal knowledge that he could kill him any time he so chose and yet to do so would be to become the very thing that he hated.

“Ha,ha,ha. That tickles!” Tam shouted, filled with giggles, not even attempting to block as the irritant spider that was her opponent stepped forward, going as it was with it’s left tenkle foot in an attempt to hit her, hitting her with such force that would have almost certainly have flattened young Alen though the rest of the party would have been fine as as Mid A to C rankers there were impervious to sutch damage. Instead, all it did was enrage her further, pushing her further off the edge.

‘Ha, my turn’ She thought, stepping forward, barely a scratch on her, having absorbed the brunt of the blow with the help of her Master level constitution statt.

And so with great anticipation, Tam screamed,

, “FLAMING DEVIL RAGE!” She screamed, turning to the right, a bloody grin on her face as she did so as she did, ensuring that she was fully faced with the gigantic-sized spider, activating her favourite devil rage ability skill , blood pouring out from her many, many pores, spreading down, up and all across her entire body.

Slowly but surely, spreading across, spreading through the enetrity of her giant-like body like a cancer, healing the few wounds that she did have as it did so. Till finally stopping. The transformation, this blood-soaked transformation, having reached the entirety of her outer body. Finishing itself off with a bang, hitting the last piece of the puzzle, her gigantic axe-like sward, taking on its final purple green pigment-like foam, bursting to flames as it did so.

“Hah, you're in for it now!'' Tam heard Ash's voice shout, as she slowly began to swing her now gigantic flaming battle axe towards the Giaspider, his words seeming to come out from the very wall themselves. Though she knew that this was not the case. And was but instead just an effect of his stone shadow chat skill. Something that she, and indeed the entire group, was dreadfully weary of, him having used it too many times before in his self proclaimed duties as party prankster in an abject attempt to frighten them all.

‘Not that it had ever worked on me, that is.’.

Matt watched, amazed and slightly dumb stricken as the tall green-red-haired barbarian of a woman lit up her gigantic, broadsword-like, axe with some sort of green-coloured like fire having activated some sort of skills that allowed her to set her blood alight. Keenly watching as she split yet another of his monsters in two.

“Common, the core shouldn’t be that far now” she shouted, heading forwards into the general vicinity of his core.

‘Oh no there getting closer’, Matt panicky thought, the fear of the unknown that was death having quietly overtaken any sense of reason that he might have left and so, knowing that would properly fail but needing to try anyway, matt focused, ordering whatever monsters he had left to converge on his core, quietly awaiting what was to come.

“Hey guys!” Ash shouted smug as hell, suddenly jumping out from the shadows hoping to effect quite the fright out of them too as he did so.

“Hi,” Jaret said, Abb's following shortly after him. “, Where have you been?” Jarret asked, more than irritated at the fact of how he could find the time to crack jokes at a time like this. 'But that Ash for you, I guess,'

“What no kiss for me, Abbs” Ash said, aiming a smothering hand kiss directly at her.

“No, of course...just...just answer the question dammit,” Abb’s said nothing but a curfull concealed scroll appearing on her face, a thing, Jaret was sure, he would not have noticed had he not known what to look for, carefully keeping up her emotionless facade of a face-up as she was, doing it as much out of a desire to not it let out how mutch his staunch advances made her feel as of one of habit and thought Jaret was sure.

“I’ve been shadowing Tam!” Ash said seemingly shouting for no good reason, looking into Abb’s eyes daring her to react to the anger inherent to his gaze as he did so only nothing, not even silence, in return.

“So where is she,” Jarret asked directing his words to ash, looking at ash as he did so, forcing the silent battle to a halt knowing how, from previous engagements like this one, how this would go on, and on, and on till a winner/loser was finally declared, and with their record, it could be days possibly weeks before anything could be decided, one way or another.

“Not far just down that tunnel,” Ash said directing his right arm to that of the one tunnel that remained. “Common, follow me, I’ll take you to her,” Ash said speaking the usual general swagerness that Jaret had come to know him by in the many years past that had gone by since they’d first met in that fateful tavern playing that arfull dice game that he loved so much.

“Ok,” Jarret said, following without another word in response, intent as he was on finding Tam and possibly giving her a good throttling for leaving them like she had.

“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!” Jaret screamed, turning the tunnel only to find him face to face with tam. ““WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!”” He screamed at Tam, tearing her a new one, filled with rage and anger both at her very presence. “Leaving us as you did! It was irirersposivil. It was irrational! And worst of all! It was cruel! You should have known better!”

“I’m sorry sir, ,” Tam as blunt as ever said, looking towards shame in her very being. “I should have known better but the bloodlust overwhelmed me” She said and started to cry. Surprising Jaret with her tears.

“What? But, but, but....” Jaret said, shocked for words, having never seen Tam cry before in all the seven years that he had known her. “But. But. ”

“But I’m Level 50,” Tam said, still crying yet as stoic as ever, seemingly having caught onto what he was trying to say.

“Yes,”‘Dsmit’ Jaret said. “Your level 50, that shouldn’t affect you anymore, should it?” Jaret asked.

“Yes sir, that was the case but now it’s come back and I can’t control it, ” Tam said quietly drying her eyes, doing her best to get herself under control.

“But….But how?” He stuttered, wondering how this could even be possible.

“It’s a result of a new skill I bought off the system, sir”

“A skill?” Jarret asked.

“Yes sir, A skill,” she said, confirming his ears.

“You should have told me, did you know about this?” He said turning to Abb’s, knowing that if Tam would have told anyone it would be her.

Abb’s shook her head looking down in shame going as to hug her potential lover and friend. “She didn’t sir, I thought, I thought I could control it” Tam said, looking down, ashamed of her actions for the first time ever. Accepting the hug from Abbs for what it was. A gentle gift of kindness from one who loved her. Not even attempting to push her away.

“Well you couldn’t, could you,” Jaret said, unsure if he was supposed to feel. ‘I don’t know If I should be angry or sad for her. Can I be both?’.

“No” Tam halfheartedly said, still looking downwards, a slight mumble in her voice. “I’m sorry sir, I let you down but I think I know a way to fix it”

“Fix it, How?” He said, wondering what she had in mind.

“A reset stone,sir” Tam said, pulling out from her pocket what appeared to be a black diamond that looked a lot like what Jaret would look like a baby dungeon core to look like in its earliest stages of development.

“What?” Jaret said, curling his hands up, shocked as the others seemed to by her words. “You would use such a thing, how did you even get your hands on one. They're so rare.How did you even find one?” He asked, not expecting an answer.

“And for good reason,” Abb’s murmured, interjecting herself into the conversation for only a fraction of a second that it took Tam to answer Jaret’s question.

“Yes sir,” Tam said looking up straight into his eyes, showing her sincerity, as she did so. “I would do anything to be rid of this accursed trait. And as to your other question. I got it from a dungeon.” Tam respectively added.

“Which one?” He asked, knowing that he would have to report this to the Guildmaster at the earliest convenience lest this fall back upon the rest of them.

“The pale dungeon, sir”

‘Hugh was not expecting that,’ “Ok.”

“Ok, sir” Tam said with obvious confusion within her eyes and voice. Having obviously expected some sort of reprieve from her words.A shout. A punch bad.Perhaps even a kick of the team.Certainly, that would have been the obvious choice had they been on the surface. And had they been on the surface he would have almost certainly done so already. As what she had done hadn’t just put her teammates at risk, but it went against at least 3 rules in the Adventurer rule book. But they weren’t. And he needed her too much right now to risk losing her over what was now such a pretty little thing.

“Yes ok” Jaret said “Let’s talk about this latter, right now we’ve got a core to find”

“Yes sir,” Tam said, seemingly not willing to do it now. ‘Not good, not good at all’,

“Good,” He said, turning to Abb’s, intent on asking her how far it was to the dungeons core only for her to promptly speak up, answering his question before he could even ask it. “Not far now, sir, about 2 many minutes away if we slow down a bit”

“Ok, let’s go then,” he said, nodding to Abs before quickly walking forwards, indicating to Tam and the others to follow behind him.

“So Tam, tell me about this new ability of yourse” Jaret asked, walking forwards, carefully matching Tam’s steps as he did so.

“Well that was enlightening, don't you think so, Bob?” Mat said, watching through the shadows of what he liked to call his mind eye ability even though the system called it something much different ‘Mind’s eyes is after all much more fitting than dungeon sight I should think after all.’.

“Yes sir.”.

“What’s a reset stone anyway?” Matt asked, bursting to brim with cursoity over this topic.

“It’s just as the name suggest, master, They reset thing's”

“How so?” Matt asked. Curious as to what was so special about one tiny little stone. 'Then again I'm a talking stone so who am I to judge.'.

“Reset stones just like their relevant conuterparts reset token’s, do as reset things, People, Places, items, skills, anything and everything,” Bob said, going on to explain what he meant by that. “But unlike tokens there not one-off items as and can be used as long as one likes, well as long as the stone is given time to properly recharge of course”

‘So basically the mother of all cheats, Hmm’ Matt thought, suddenly mentally slaviting at what he could do with such a thing, thousand upon thousands or so ways of how he could use such an item coming to the surface all at once. “Bob?”

“Yes, master?”

“You said adventurers usually want loot,” Matt said, suddenly having come up with an idea of how he could use this to his advantage.

“Yes master, that is correct”

“What is loot then?” Matt said. Wanting to be sure his knowledge was up to date before he put his plan into action.

“It’s……”

“Valuable items that I as a dungeon core can create on the fly as long as I have the pattern for said Item, yes, yes, I know, you’ve told me this all before,” He said, going into further detail. “ What I mean is, can it be anything”

“I don’t know what you mean master,” Bob said, seeming rather perplexed. “, Perhaps...”

“Perhaps I could lower my shields down so that you can read my mind?" 'No, way' "No that’s not happening,” Matt said, having known what Bob was about to say before he said, then having had this exact same conversation already. They'd regained some trust since the incident, but not enough that Matt would wilengly let Bob go tripping through his mind. 'It's bad enough that I have to drop the shields to let my surface thoughts through, so we can talk, but to let him in for longer, no way'. "Never again" Matt promssied to himself.

“What I mean is Bob,is..” he calmly said, calm as could be even though inwardly he was screaming with rage, panicking at the very thought of what Bob had tried to suggest.“Can loot be anything, I mean I know loot can’t be over four feet long or something stupid due to ‘maneculare duration’ whatever that is,you’ve explained that many times before, but....”

“Yes, master, that is correct,” Bob said.

“But, Does it have to be a pattern the system gave me or could I use anything, ”He said excitedly, finally getting to the height of the matter as it were.” , say….”

“Say,...say what master

“Say what...” Bob said seemingly so entranced that he’d almost forgotten to use his ritualistic master finisher remembering only seconds later.“Say what...Master”

Matt smiled, ‘I’ve got him now,’ He thought filled with pleasure as went on to explain what he meant by these words… “......Say a seemingly rare item such as a reset stone”.

“Master, that's brilliant!”

“I know, Bob, I know,”

“But how do you intend to get the pattern, if I may be so bold as to ask, Master? So far she’s destroyed every single monster that she’s gone up against '' Bob said. Seemingly not confident in his planning skills. “ And now the rest of her parties with her, a party whose members, may I remind you, master, contains not one, not two, but three B rankers with the one leading them seemingly a low, possibly higher, A ranker himself, how do you intend to stand against such a force master?" Bob asked, filling Matt with dread with his words.

“I don’t know Bob but I think we're about to find out,” Matt said, watching as the seemingly all-powerful Adventurers turned through the last of his tunnel having finally arrived at the edge of where the centre of his labyrinth lay, what Bob insisted on calling his core room.

‘Though it does have a certain ring to it, core, room, the room where I store my core, hagh, I think I’ll keep it…..’