Scholar 2

(A few hours before)

"Enough resting. Pack your things together, it´s time to set out. I don´t want the monster to rot on me during the trip back." said the scholar standing up and putting away his notebook and feather.

"Understood." Sayed the adventurers in unison with little motivation. They all put their stuff away and stretched their bodies. Erik walked towards the dead monster that was as big as a medium-sized dog and carried it on his shoulder while holding a sword in his other hand and a backpack on his back.

...

While they were walking back towards the exit Mina the mage with pointy ears asked, "What exactly were we doing down there? I know the dungeons are going crazy at the moment, but it wasn´t so bizarre..."

The scholar continued to walk behind the bulky man, looking at the corps. "Well, the normal volks only know that stronger monsters are seen on the first few floors. But what they didn´t tell the people is that the dungeons are releasing more mana, as usual, monsters are more aggressive and behave unnaturally, that is something that the dungeons do once every few years and is a medium kept secret. What is concerning is that new monsters have been spawning seemingly out of nowhere. No sign of tier 5 monsters that could have spawned them or natural spawning points. One even managed to escape the tundra dungeon in the north and killed two towns in the vicinity in only a few hours before finally being killed by a nearby A-tier adventurer. No one ever saw a monster like that in this dungeon."

"Have there ever been such a case where new kinds of monsters are spawning?" asked the bulky man in front of the scholar.

Interested in the topic the young woman asked, "And how could a low-tier monster even manage to destroy two towns?"

Hearing the two questions the scholar had a grim look on his face. "There were sporadic monster spawning a few centuries ago when the third wave of dungeons were popping out, but since then no such case was seen or written in history. And for the second question, the monster was a giant dark ice mantis, that´s how we call the new species for now. The one that ravaged the towns was still a juvenile at tier 3."

"""What!""" exclaimed all 3 of the adventurers in disbelieve.

"I thought it was a group of bandits that destroyed the towns." said the wavy black-haired woman.

"This is getting kind of scary" whimpered the mage, gripping her staff tighter.

"Damn, so how strong are the fucking adults of this kind?" grumbled the bulky man leading the group through the tunnels.

*sigh* "That´s exactly why most of the dungeons have been closed and investigations teams are sent out everywhere. To avoid panic the guild and the royals have decided to mask the incident."

For the rest of the way, they walked in silence, only hearing their own rhythmic footsteps.

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel the bulky man broke the silence with a burst of laughter. "Grahahaha, we are almost out of the dungeon. I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel! Can´t wait to finally drink till I blackout again!"

The others only shacked their heads with small smiles on their faces.

Everyone would be happy to get out of a dungeon after a week of delving into a place packed with monsters, deadly landscapes, flesh-eating vegetation, and no bed.

"Not so fast meathead. We first have to submit the quest completion." nagged the young woman.

"Haaa?! What did you say shorty?!" grunted the man.

The other two just walked past them letting the two bicker on their own. The elf and scholar were already out with their hands covering their eyes from the bright daylight.

Being out of the dungeon the elf took a few deep breaths, smiled, and said, "Ah, I missed the fresh air!"

"I missed the sunlight more." said the scholar and continued to enjoy the warm beams from the sun.

"Welcome back scholar. How was the exploration?" Hearing the new voice he turned towards the person and saw a man clad in shining armor and a long halberd in his hand.

Recognizing the guard he smiled and greeted, "Good to see you too, James. Sadly the exploration wasn´t as fruitful as I expected, but nevertheless, we discovered quite a few changes and new monsters."

"Good or bad?" asked the guard with a wry smile.

"Don´t know yet. Could be both." said the scholar with a sigh.

The armored man sighed too and patted his shoulder. "A bummer, I could only pray for good news then."

"Me too..."

"So, let me see your quest parchment to let me stamp it and you are good to go. A carriage is already here for your team. It will carry you straight to the city." said the armored guard pointing towards a wooden carriage with two monsters attached and a man leaning at it while smoking a pipe.

"Thanks again bud. Will see you around." said the man with a grin and walked towards a carriage. He then turned towards his group and shouted, "Come on, let's get this finally over with and relax!"

Hearing those words the ears of the adventurers perked up and walked towards the carriage quicker than normal.

"Hey lads, you the adventurers I have to carry towards the city?" asked the old man while puffing purple smoke into their faces.

"Yup that´s us alright." answered the bulky man.

The old man just nodded and signed them to get on. The ride was slow and calm and it only took 10 minutes to reach their destination. The scenery was beautiful as the dungeon opening was in the middle of a flower field. During the whole time, they talked and relaxed their tired body and mind a little, before reaching the city gate.

After a few minutes, they could already spot the city with its giant stone wall that is surrounding it. Many guards could be seen around and on the tall wall.

Not long after departure they reached the city gate and were let in effortlessly after showing their adventurer ID and the stamped parchment.

The group thanked the old man for the ride and headed straight for the big building with a sign on it. Entering the guildhall they saw chattering people that are drinking and eating. More people were here than normal due to the closed dungeons. Most lost their income or had to travel to a dungeon that is still open and deemed to be safe. So they all are now drowning their problems with alcohol while complaining about the current situation.

Walking towards the receptionist the group heard a lot of complaints about why the dungeons were shut. They were ignorant about the dangers of the dungeons. Only a few adventurers, scholars, and the royals know why the dungeons are really shut down.

Walking towards the reception he was greeted by a friendly voice, "Welcome back, Simon."

He looked at the pretty receptionist in wonder and said, "Oh, nice to see you too, Meliza. I thought you got fired for being too lazy."

"Hahaha, yup I got fired alright, but many adventurers complained about it and got rehired." snickered the receptionist.

She then changed into her professional demeanor and said, "Anyway what can I do for you today?" with a gentle smile.

"I am here to claim my rewards and report about the dungeons." said the scholar handing her the stamped parchment.

She took it and nodded after confirming the completion of the quest. She then walked to the backroom to get their payment.

After a few seconds, she came back with the payment and a sealed letter for the scholar.

"Here you go," said Meliza while handing the sack of gold and letter to him.

The rest of the adventurer group who was silent the entire time got excited seeing the big sack of gold.

"Ohhh, we are going to party tonight!" shouted Erick who is still carrying the dead monster on his shoulder while gathering quite a lot of attention.

"Shut up, you are too loud!" complained the black-haired archer.

They started to bicker again as the elf mage tried to calm them down, but without success.

Meanwhile, the scholar looked at the sealed letter and saw the wax stamp. His eyes widened and shock could be seen on his face when he recognized the symbol on the wax stamp. The letter is from the royal family of this country. Wondering what they could possibly want from a normal scholar like him, he took the letter and put it into his pocket.

He thanked the green-haired receptionist again and walked towards an empty table. Following him was the group of three who were still bickering with each other.

As everyone was seated the scholar coughed to get the attention of the group. After seeing he got their attention, he started to hand out their share of the payment.

"So, as we agreed you will all get 30% of the share plus the repair cost. And Erik for carrying the monster you will get an extra 5 gold coins. I will give it to you when we reach the institute."

"Sweet!" said Erik with a grin.

The others were happy as they got a bonus from the guild for diving deeper as they should have, collecting extra data for them.

"Guess here is where our way parts, scholar." said the young woman while taking her share and putting the gold coins into her pouch.

"We will stay in the Golden Bell inn so meet us there when you finished delivering the monster." said the elf looking at Erik.

"Got it. When are we going?" Asked Erik the scholar.

"In about an hour. I have to get some things first and ask the guild for a time delay spell scroll to halt the decomposition of the monster. Tell them it is for the royal institution Ferum."

"Will do, boss."

While Erik was talking to the guild the girls went to the inn to finally relax. The scholar meanwhile went around the city and purchased a few ingredients and rented a carriage for their trip.