Ajax woke up early the next day and he was feeling excited. It would be the first time he went into a dungeon and his age was starting to peek through. He went outside to try and burn off some of the excess energy. As he looked through the town he noticed several watchtowers placed all around. Not only that but the trees around the village were cleared out in an odd manner, as if they were tactically positioned. He thought it may have something to do with the dungeon and he could ask his new team.

When he returned to the inn, they had already started serving breakfast and he grabbed some food and a table. Throughout the meal members of the team started to trickle in.

“Early riser?” the group's scout asked him as he sat down?

“Yeah, I was a bit excited so I took a look around the village.” Ajax answered. “Why all the watchtowers?.”

“Early warning. The first floor is not considered a problem. But out here the second floor is the limit unless some strong party is passing through and decides to go for it. This means that the dispatched defenses for this place can handle any second floor break.” he explained. “Problem is, what happens if someone from a wiped group survives the second floor by running past the boss into the third?”

Ajax realized what he meant. If he had to make the decision he probably would do the same. Run past the boss into the third floor and then just exit the dungeon. The problem was that this would release a fully uncleared third floor in the environment and the bosses for that floor could reach up to level sixty.

“The entire layout in between this place and the dungeon is set up to discourage any monster breaks from heading towards the town.”

With the meal done everybody got geared and they headed towards the dungeon. The trip there was through an unituative maze of trees. He now knew why there wasn’t a straight road to the entrance, it would be an invitation if a break happened.

As they reached a clearing in the forest he saw that past the clearing an opening through the trees was made that led further away from the town, probably in order to help direct any creatures towards that direction.

The clearing was massive, three times as large as a football field. In the center was a large archway that oozed mana. Around it were some uniformed guards the purpose of which was unclear yet to Ajax. Throughout the clearing he could see tents set up everywhere, everywhere except too close to the archway.

A sharp rise in the mana of the gate drew his attention to the gate. Out of it came a group of ragged adventurers that had sand dripping off them. They looked to be in a sorry shape but none seemed critically injured. As they exited some of the guards moved to help them and got them away from the arch.

Something else that drew his attention was how people from all over started to converge on the arch at the same time that the guards started giving it space. Jones dropped his pack, pulled his whip from his belt and also approached. Oddly enough, despite the people getting ready to fight the atmosphere wasn’t tense at all.

Five minutes later the mana surrounding the arch started to churn much more. Then out they came. Snakes, scorpions, some ferocious looking camels. They were coming out of both sides one after another only to be picked off by the people waiting for them. Interestingly enough all of them exploded into mana the moment they died leaving nothing behind.

This wasn’t a battle, it was a slaughter. Ajax used his ability to judge the strength of the creatures and he knew none of them were as strong as even the fish he faced. They weren’t weak by any means but they were all far too uncoordinated. They came out through a funnel to be executed. This continued for a good ten minutes before the mana of the gate calmed down.

“That’s what a dungeon break looks like.” the caster from his team whispered to him. “Not sure if you read all the guidelines of the Adventurer’s Guild but we have a duty, wherever possible, to clear out as much of the floor as we can before we exit.”

As they were walking closer to the gate he could see Jones talking to the guard that had a clipboard and seemed to be showing him something. While this was happening another group walked forward and entered the archway. As they entered the arch’s mana barely fluctuated.

“So how bad is it?” Bobby asked Jones as he returned.

“Quite good actually, there is only one team ahead of us.” he responded.

“What?” Ajax mumbled at the odd exchange.

“They limit the number of teams that can be inside at one time.” The scout heard him and decided to explain. “ The guild does offer local teams incentives for picking up annoying or unpaid contracts. They reward them with VIP status, meaning we get to skip the queue for entry.”

Ajax could see how that worked. Every time the guild needed something done it would offer a number of VIP passes to the team that completed their job. Quick, easy, cost them nothing and served as a good incentive for teams.

“Hey Jones!” someone called out as they approached. “Are you here for something specific?”

Ajax looked in the direction of the voice to see a man that would have been in his mid twenties back on Earth approach. Interestingly he recognised the insignia on his left shoulder, it belonged to the Reavers.

“Not right now we aren’t.” Jones answered amicably. “Yourself?”

“We have an exclusive contract for the feathers of a bird, at least ten meters wing span and a minimum level of forty-seven.” the newcomer said.

Ajax noticed a few members of his new team grimace when they heard the contract.

“Can’t help you this time I’m afraid.” Jones said. “We’ll be sticking to the first floor for our delve.”

“You have fresh meat?” The man started searching through the team until his eyes landed on Ajax. “So you are the healer they’ve been waiting around for eh kid?”

“No.” Ajax replied shortly.

The man’s face switched from a neutral smile to one of confusion before he turned back to Jones with a look of envy.

“You guys recruit that Ajax runt?” he scoffed and started to walk away. “I thought you would know better than to risk your team like that for the favor of a few nobles.”

“What’s his problem?” Bobby asked and quite a few of the team members looked confused at the sudden change in attitude.

“His team also tried to recruit me.” Ajax offered. “I recognise the team insignia.”

That’s when the gate started acting up again. It quickly spat out a team of slightly dirty but otherwise fine adventurers. Not only that but it also released a pulse of mana.

“That’s good, they cleared the floor.” one of his team members said.

As he did they watched as the Reavers headed towards the arch and entered the dungeon without much preamble. It made sense, the Reavers were exterminators so they would be one of the teams most likely to have quite a few VIP passes from the guild.

“We’re next up so make sure you’re all ready to go.” Jones said.

While they waited, quite a few more teams approached Jones much in the same way the Reavers had, looking for an extra pair of eyes and hands for specific requests. Ajax also noticed that all the contracts were exclusive, it made sense not to ask for help on a public contract however.

Ajax recognised a good three quarters of the teams that approached them as they had also tried to recruit him. Unlike the Reavers however they didn’t seem to hold a grudge and instead greeted Ajax and said he made a good decision in joining the Collectors.

The wait this time took around twenty more minutes before the archway let another team out. They were much like the last team that exited but there was no mana pulse at the end when they exited.

As with normal procedure, everyone backed away and waited five minutes before four turtles waddled out of the dungeon only to be wiped out.

“I thought you said policy said you should clear the floor?” Ajax asked while they were strapping the packs to their backs and started making for the arch.

“It is. Inside every floor there is an obelisk. When triggered it makes all the remaining monsters on the floor head towards it. It’s how we clear floors without having monsters squared away in some corner.” the scout said. “Downside is you don’t know when you killed everything. Those turtles must have been so slow and far away from the obelisk that they exited before they arrived.”

“Nothing for you to worry about, all the creatures inside the first floor are quick so we’ll get a nice full clear.” Bobby said as he casually swung the intimidating big axe as a warmup.

“Why would I worry about that?” Ajax asked.

“Oh? You’ll see then, I won’t spoil the surprise.” Bobby said and the others who heard the exchange smiled at him, but not in a malicious or prankster way.

Before he had a chance to question them further they reached the archway and a system prompt flashed before his eyes.

Party Invite

Jones would like to invite you to join his party. Accept?

Yes No

Warning! Party groups last for only five minutes outside of mana rich environments. Parties enter the same instance of a dungeon. Parties share kill experience inside dungeons based on contribution to the party, not just the kill.

Ajax accepted but nothing changed. He stood there confused when Bobby grabbed him and dragged him through the arch.