Chapter 20 The Team

"Dayyyuuuuuum!" Rift raised up an Iron Sword with a Flame Orb in the middle of the hilt. "Thay sir is what we call an Iron Orb Sword, you can place any orb within it as long as it's not too strong for the sword. We do have Dragon Steel Orb Swords, they can handle some pretty powerul Dragon Orbs, but they're going to cost you a million gold." The Smith said through his steel helmet. "Dayuuum, does the orb come with the sword?" Rift asked. "The sword is 15 thousand Gold, the Fire Orb is 20 thousand." The vendor told. "I'll take the sword." Rift then receives the sheath for the bade after paying him, placing it within his newly purchased belt, still keeping the slightly worn out Sandworm armor. Rift then turned to Jacko who was speaking to a lady with runes drawn into her body.

He then holds up a Steel Orb Pisto- Wand, it's a wand. They're wands . "Haha...I'm out of money now!" Jacko said excitedly, tossing up the wand up and down while placing it on his belt. "Wait for real?" Rift laughed. "Yeah...this wand was 20 thousand gold." Jacko told. "At least we got some Lightning Orbs to use em." He said as he places a Lightning Orb within his blade, while Jacko did the same to his wand. Jacko then turned to the training dummies near them and then practices shooting lightning bolts at the steel dummys. He mainly missed most of them. "Oh darn..." Jacko shook his hand after using them, the recoil hurt him a bit, then he turned his arm into a ground slime hand, while summoning Finn to sit on his shoulder. This time, he perfectly shot the Target's heads. "Even with this, I still need slimes huh?" Jacko sighed. "Hi..." Finn patted his naturally weak master's shoulder.

"You gotta get used to it, you're registered as a mage after all." Rift said. "Come on, let's meet with the others." Rift then walked to the SEXS. "I'll follow later." Jacko said, looking at the enchantress again. "Aight, you better hurry. We don't wanna look like pushovers." Rift then disappears into the SEXS.

"You like it, darling?" The black haired woman with dark skin and red runes on her body asked, a fire orb is also seen pertruding out of her breasts. "Yeah!" Jacko said. "So, would you mind me to show your runes?" She asked. "Runes?" He tilted his head. "I've heard that you call yourself a Slime Summoner, to even summon monsters must require magic as well. You see, the art of runes are only existent in magical creatures and artificial magic users, like me." She then snaps her fingers, making am ember appear on her hand. "For a good price, I can review your runes and I'll see if there's anything interesting you can do with them that you don't know you could." The enchantress asked. Jacko nodded. "I guess we could try..." Jacko held up his remaining pouch of money, he in fact, was not out of money yet.

The Guildmaster has three adventurers at the table with him down at the lobby sharing a meal together. He then reviews these adventurers' papers.

Herman Gotye,A white man with dark hair and blue eyes wore light enchanted clothes, they were barely armor. He eats his steak by small bits, seemingly keeping a diet for himself. He carries himself a Steel Long Sword, enchanted and strong enough to handle three Orbs at once.

"Ebony, don't you know how disgusting your manners are!?" Herman pointed at the woman using water tentacles from her finger tips to wave it around Ebony Marshan. "Watch me!" She laughed, she wore the same baring robes of the enchantress above the floors. Her skin is slightly less darker than the enchantress and had blue runes all over her body. "You're just jealous because I can do this, you're all just less fortunate to me." She bragged as she swallowed a steak whole.

The other adventurer, blonde and wears white nurse clothes. She carries a crossbow on her back and a pack of syringes. Her name is Persephone Hides, she prefers to be called "Peppy." She idolizes a certain adventurer, wanting to become like her. "Where are the other two, Sir? If they don't come, can I eat their food?" She asked. The Guildmaster groaned as he then sees Rift walking from the elevator and sat by Peppy. "Yoo, what's up?" He greeted, looking at Peppy. "Heyyy!" Peppy greeted back. "Where's the Slime boy, Reeves?" He asked. "He's talking to the hottie upstairs." Rift smirked. Peppy raised her eyebrows. Ebony clicked her tongue.

"We're running out of time, so brief him once more at the Carriers." The Guildmaster then cleared his throat.

The Dragon Dungeons are one of the ancient towers built by old deities of the past used to challenge mortals. Ever since the dieties disappeared, the towers leaked monsters of their respective towers to escape and wreck most of the land. The humans however managed to contain them by the King Of Steel, King Sterling Grayhold The First. That was only 50 years ago too.

The Dragon Dungeons have 20 floors, the first five floors of the dungeon were completely conquered by humans, for there were only weaker monsters and occasionally low-tier dragons there. The 6th floor to the 10th floor are considered pretty difficult yet possible to do by a couple of B and C tier adventurers. Though A tiers are usually sent for guaranteed victories so Dragon Orbs can be taken easily. The 11th floor to 20th floor is were things do take a turn, they are considered the true trials, very few braved those floors and too few succeeded. Elder Dragon Orbs, Ancient Dragon Weapons, Ancient Enchantments and even Void Inventories were the only kinds of items acquired from the final floor within.

"Other than that, I wanna stay alive so let's stock up at the shops at the 3rd floor." Herman groaned.

The group are now travelling by one of the Dragon Carriers, Rift watched Dragons battling in the distance. "I'm betting on the Green one!" Peppy said. "Peps, I'm pretty sure the Red One has the elemental advantage." Rift said, while pulling up his coin bag. "You never know!" Peppy giggled.

"Can't we stop somewhere below 20th floor and above 10?" Jacko asked. "I just said it, that's where the trials begin. You can no longer escape the dungeon once they begin." Herman told. "Right, but is it true that we could talk to the king if we beat the tenth floor?" Jacko asked. "I've heard of that too, I don't know. We're all first timers to the Dragon Raid too." Herman said. Jacko then turned to Ebony, who had been staring at him the entire time. "Don't mind her, she's weird." Herman said. "I thought you were gonna be lame to be honest, but you're basically a wildcard." Herman said. "A wild card? But I can only summon slimes." Jacko said. "And you did say that you can absorb Slimes Hearts to increase your power. Think about it and think about it hard. If you keep doing that, you could become a fucking god " Herman told. Jacko shook his head. "I'm not interested in that, besides, I don't think it's healthy for me to keep doing that." Jacko told. "That depends. Imagine if you just suddenly decide to do so, that's why you're a wildcard. And if you do give off the vibe...I will kill you." Jacko shuddered as he said that. "I'll try..." Jacko whimpered. Herman smirked, seeing him scared.

In the distance, there stood a large tower witu the combination of red, green and black scales forming it. There were dragons flying around the top, intimidating those who dared to challenge those dragons at the top. "We're here." London then stopped the Carrier right in front of the large gates of the dungeon. "Present your IDs at the guards in the Dragon Bazaar, then they will allow you to enter the dungeons, after you all stock up of course. Good luck." She told, starting up the Carrier once more and leaving the five adventurers in front of the gates. "Is the food free? I forgot to eat breakfast..." Jacko complained.

The three other adventurers were coming across every shop within the five floors. They were filled with people using low tier dragon materials for making their stands and selling food cooked from all the dragon meat and monsters. It's like a whole new city down here. Jacko walked with Rift, in a very low mood. "Damn, you really don't have money left?" Rift asked, surprised because Jacko told him he had 50 thousand with him...then again he shared almost all of them with Rift. "Yeah..." Jacko then sees an area labeled 'Beware! Low-Tier Dragons ahead!' "Can you cook, Rift?" Jacko looked up at him. "I did watch the butcher cook sometimes, why?" Rift asked, then immediately realized. "Oh, right...Of course. I'm not coming with tho, I'd rather chill here for a bit." He told.

"Broff!" As Jacko called out his name, the fire slime emerged from his arm and shot out a powerful flamethrower at a poor small green dragon. Jacko was surprised himself that he had taken down this dragon with ease...just like the other low-tier dragons all around him. Jacko smiled to himself and then he heard large dragon steps coming towards him. Followed by a roar a green smoke of dragon breath. Jacko then recalled a trick from the enchantress he spoke with.

The dragon looked at the young man before it, enduring it's powerful poison breath. He had conjured a small slime to cover his mouth temporarily and preventing him from inhaling the smoke. Jacko then pulled out his wand, suddenly he felt his hand being stung by electricity. "Agh-!? N-not now!" Jacko groaned. The Dragon then charges at him,about to devour him whole before a sharp electric bullet pierced through its brain, ricocheting off the walls and piercing through its tough skin all over it's body again and again, before the bullet returned to the wand. Jacko opened his eyes to see the Dragon collapsing before him with smoking holes. "Bzzzttztztztztzt!" Jacko then looked at the top of his wand, a tiny slime with a face made out of electricity. "Oh! Thank you!" Jacko sighed, a bit annoyed how his wand is basically useless now that his orb turned into another slime. The electric slime dashes around Jacko's body and stopped at his shoulder. "Zzzzzzt!" It looked over behind his shoulder, then Jacko turned around.

He saw the adventurer with blue revealing robes, watching him with a smile. She then immediately walks away as she was discovered. Jacko looked at the dragon's he had killed, then realized he didn't know how to extract it's goods at all. "Ebony!" Jacko called. The woman stopped and turned to him. "What is it, Slime Summoner?" She asked, crossing her arms with interest. "Can you cook dragon meat? I'm kinda hungry...I also don't know how to extract the hearts and stuff..." Jacko told. The lady walked to him. "Why yes, I can cook. I just need the right tools." She told with a smile. "Alrighty, Mark! Broff!" Jacko calls out.

Soon, the two sat down around the cut up dragons, sharing meat together with the steel slime being in the form of a pan above Broff. "Have you ever had a woman cook for you?" The lady asked as she cooked, watching Jacko eat. "Oh, not really. Mr. Vines from the tavern always gives me food, he's not married." Jacko told, then chomps on the meat. It was juicy, sauce would have made it better. "Vines huh, I see." Ebony then removes the pan from Broff and wipes sweat from her forehead. "Thank you again, Miss Ebony." Jacko said before unsummoning his slimes. "May I ask one more thing, Jacko?" The lady fidgets with a very seductive look. "What is it?" Jacko thought she was acting weird, but he really paid no mind to it. "After the raid, would you like to come with me?" She asked. Jacko blinked and thought. "That would be nice ma'am, but I have to return to my town right after I speak with the king." Jacko answered. Ebony nodded. "I see, then would it be nice if I come with you as well?" She asked. Jacko quietly asks himself why she was acting these questions all of a sudden. "Sure, that would be nice." Jacko said. "Good, good..." Ebony smiled and stood up. "Then we should be getting ready." She pulls an orb attached to her robe. "You go ahead now, I want to do something here." She said.

Jacko nodded. "See you later!" He said and waved, walking back to Rift talking to some people from the stalls.

"Yo, Jacko!" Rift waved. "Where's the meat you need cooking? This guy said he'll do it for free." Rift told, as the man behind him nodded. "Oh sorry, someone already helped me. Thanks anyway." Jacko told. "Wait for reals? Who did?" Rift asked, the cook seemed to understand and returned to doing his job. "Ebony Marshan." Jacko said. "Her? I didn't even see her enter... Where's she now?" Rift asked. "I don't know, but I think we should wait for them at the uhhh...Floor 5 entrance?" Jacko said, though he may have mixed up the floors. "Right on." Rift patted his back and they both walked together through the stairs leading through the future floors.