The Second dungeon

===Aella===

Aella and her new party members had made their way to an inn to rest before heading to the Dungeon.

The girl, named Nalel, tried to play with Rin, and Aella told Rin to play with her as long as she didn't hurt him. If she did, she allowed him to bite her.

"So you want us to join you for the Dungeon? Preparing for it will take some time, and we will probably need more people," Jerlik, the man she fought, told her.

"Just the four of us entering are going to be okay," Aella responded.

"Then what is your plan? Do you have a special formation or tools for us to use?"

Jerlik seemed to be curious about what she planned to do.

"The four of us enter, then the two of you wait at the beginning of the Dungeon, and Rin and I will clear it up. Easy enough."

"You… you want to solo the dungeon?"

Aella wasn't sure of the term 'solo the dungeon,' but she could somewhat understand its meaning.

"Do you have a problem with that? If you do, strip all your possessions to pay your debt and leave."

The man seemed to be speechless from that response for a moment.

"*cough* Ok then. We will do as you wish. But we will try only once. I am guessing you aim for Easy difficulty, then?"

The mention of difficulty confused Aella for a few seconds, but she remembered something mentioned in the notes. Each Dungeon has four difficulties a person or a party can try completing. The difficulties were Easy, Normal, Hard, and Insane. The insane was the only one that wasn't available from the start, as only people who had completed the same Dungeon at Hard Difficulty could try it.

Once a Dungeon was completed in Insane difficulty, this option would be unavailable for everyone in the game. But special rewards would be given to the people who completed it. Their names would also get recorded on the game's leaderboards.

Aella was curious about the rewards but didn't want to spend much time going through the same Dungeon twice. Also, having her name recorded somewhere wouldn't be the best idea.

She hadn't noticed it before, but she had chosen the hard difficulty in the previous Dungeon, and that was why she got those special rewards, as she was the first to complete it in this difficulty and the first to solo finish any Dungeon in Hard Difficulty. She learned about it as she reopened the past notification congratulating her on finishing the Dungeon in Hard difficulty. Fortunately, her name didn't get recorded somewhere in that case.

Aella didn't answer his question, but now that she remembered the difficulty option, she planned to go for Hard. Even if she didn't earn a special reward each time, it would still be the best way to achieve more levels, as the enemies would be more "challenging" to face. Maybe, at some point, they will actually get challenged.

She wasn't sure what level she had to reach to use her full strength or speed without worrying about the System detecting her, but it would be quite some way to go.

They had food and drinks to help them rest faster, especially Nalel, who lost some MP, or mana points, to heal the bites she earned from playing with Rin. Even though she got bitten, she never got scared of him and continued playing; she was more careful afterward.

They started their way towards the Dungeon, and Nalel walked by the side of Aella.

"Are you truly going to face the monsters by yourself? I can join and heal you and Wolfie. We can leave Mr. Jerk behind," the girl said to Aella in a quiet voice so as not to be heard by their other party member.

Aella smiled at her. She enjoyed how she called her companion and her pet but just shook her head to deny her request.

"His name is Rin, by the way."

The girl smiled back at Aella, and even though she didn't agree to her request, she at least seemed to open up a bit.

It didn't take them long to reach the Dungeon's entrance, and Aella opened its panel as the party leader. She selected the Hard Difficulty and pressed the button to enter it.

"Wait, Hard Difficulty? Are you mad?" Jerlik screamed at her when they teleported into the Dungeon.

He paid attention to the movements and noticed the difficulty she selected.

"Just wait here. When the clear notification appears, move on towards me."

Jerlik was ready to say something more, but a look of Aella made him stop before saying anything. Instead, she used her Vampire Charm ability to make him follow her orders. He seemed to be a strong-willed person, but not enough to fight against her ability. At least not for something that simple.

Nalel petted Rin before he and Aella started moving on.

"Be careful, you two. If you get too injured, let me know, and I will come to you or come back here," the young healer told them.

Aella smiled at her and nodded, even if she was confident this wouldn't be needed. So she and Rin started their way deeper into the Dungeon.

They met soon enough the first group of enemies.

It was humanoid creatures once more at the size of a young adult human, and this time, they had light green skin. Their face was very primal, and they wore just a loincloth, like the Kobolds, but those had no tail. The System called those Goblins, and they had simple stone-blade daggers.

Their level was between 15 and 17, making them easy prey for Aella and Rin. So she let Rin take care of them and have the last hit; that way, he would earn the most of the experience they would give.

As they moved deeper, they faced more types of Goblins: Goblin Soldiers, Goblin Archers, and Goblin Assassins. They seemed similar to the Kobold monsters she had faced.

But after a point, she faced a new type of enemy called Hobgoblin. The difference between the two was that the goblins had green, yellowish skin and were pretty small, the size of a young teenager. While the hobgoblins were closer to the size of an adult human, and their skin was lightly crimson.

Their skin reminded her of the Demon Race, but other than that, there was no other similarity, and the Demons tended to have dark crimson skin while Hobgoblin's skin was lighter red.

Hobgoblins were physically more potent than the Goblins, as they used either two longswords or an enormous, compared to their size, greatsword like Aella. But theirs was pretty average and not in the best state, while Aella's was in top-notch condition, primarily because of its enchantments.

She didn't face any other type of Hobgoblins in her way as she reached what she was confident was the Boss Room. Unfortunately, it wasn't open this time, and a metallic door blocked her from entering.

Aella examined the door and noticed that it wasn't a simple metal used for it. Instead, it seemed to have some Earth Element to strengthen it. This impressed her, and she noticed that the door had a lock. If she had a Rogue with her, they could probably unlock it, but she didn't need to do something like that.

Rin had reached level 19, and he had gotten used to using most of his strength, so Aella ordered him to charge at the door and force it to open. Fortunately, his current power was more than enough to break the door open.

As the door opened, a Hobgoblin turned towards the room's entrance, terrors in its eyes at seeing the wolf blast the door open.

It started saying something in a language that Aella didn't understand, and she could feel the Shadows moving and starting to shape into something else. But then they halted, and all one could hear were some last screams of the Boss as Rin was munching its neck.

The Hobgoblin tried to get free, but Rin closed his mouth completely, tearing apart most of its neck.

Then, a panel appeared in front of Aella and at the rest of her party, which was still back at the start of the Dungeon. It was congratulating them for finishing the Dungeon.

The end was under-climatic. The Boss seemed to be working on something interesting, but Aella didn't get the chance to tell Rin to wait for her to see what it was.

There was no special reward this time, as it seemed like she wasn't the first person to complete this Dungeon in Hard Difficulty. If she could go through it alone, there may have been some extra reward, but that Dungeon didn't have a Solo option.

She got a few messages through the party's chat system from her party members, who were curious to learn what happened, but she just told them to move on so they could exit this place. Every living member had to be together for them to exit the Dungeon.

While waiting, Aella read the notes for the next Dungeon, or at least what monsters will be there, even if the notes contained only their names and levels.

Hopefully, she will get something good from it.