Off To A Dungeon

"I have all the reports with me today. Some of you know what you were doing. I can tell you have experience writing these reports. Especially those of you that formatted them as you would business documents. For that, I am glad. You can show off your education from elsewhere. However, it leaves your language in a stiff format."

The professor of the dungeon class was clearly unhappy. Malik still felt that everyone struggled with his innate skill which made him hard to focus on and remember, but that was fine. Because he was a mapper. He was professor mapper to most of them now. Especially with how he had been explaining his history as mapping various dungeons. 

Redgarless, as he spoke, he showed examples of why stiff wording was poor in this class. "The dungeons will change over time. If you say that a blue poison frog will always live in puddles, then you make it seem that they will never be outside of one. Leading explorers to be ambushed when they are not in a puddle." 

"This one here, tells me that the strangling vine beast will always be adverse to light and fire since it is a dark type monster, but it fails to mention that it does have a potential to mutate. The stiff word, always, is where you lose the reader. They will ignore the next paragraph that says anything about the mutation potential of this monster." 

This analysis of reports kept going on. It raised a lot of questions about interpretation of information. How groups relying on this information could fail because of one poorly written sentence.

Event details that were not clear enough could cause a misunderstanding. Something as small as translating something wrong could end up with a hundred member group dead. All because an ancient language in a dungeon was not translated to warn of a trap. 

"The only report worthwhile here is the one regarding the clacking skeleton dungeon. It details the current beasts along with the elite monsters. While mutations are rare, it even regards the one known mutated elite monster."

"The inside cave like catacomb terrain is also explained. The dry environment which makes water more important. The lack of light which requires torches or night vision skills or potions. Even detailing the known paths so that the leader can study potential routes for whatever the dungeon currently looks like."

"That being said, all your other classes are canceled for tomorrow and for three days after that. You will get a copy of this report and begin preparing to explore this dungeon." 

The room became dead silent. Less than a day to prepare!? 

"You don't understand. At your low levels, you would be told about this much in advance. You would also be treated as bag carriers by a developed adventurer group, guard clearing group, or mercenary group. That's why we will have five academy guards with us."

"You will study, record, and fight as we see fit. Any further dangers will not be tolerated and the guards will act."

"That is all. Begin preparations to be here tomorrow as the sun rises." 

The room went in to chaos immediately. Even the older students knew they should have expected this. They had heard that joining the first year class even as a review would leave them in this position. 

Now, they had to prepare with them to take on an entire dungeon. While it was a beginner dungeon known for being easy to handle, they were als novices. 

Malik had no issue with this. He left the classroom too. Meeting Instructor Jen wasn't possible since she was handling personal business still. Therefore, Malik found himself leaving a note for her if she returned. 

Furthermore, he also told Professor Silva that he would be away for this. It was clear she already knew though.

By making these rounds, Malik was also able to take advantage of the little money he had made from handing over the bodies of the locusts and some of the mana clay to the guild. He exchanged that for a few health potions and some mana potions. 

Both were not necessarily required for him. But without a healing skill, he would not be able to help anyone that received injuries. On top of that, he would also not be able to replenish his own mana fast enough if he was in a poor position where he was surrounded by enemies. 

This dungeon was one that he had studied. The odds that he would be in these dangerous positions were slim to none. Especially since the skeletal monsters within were weak. They would be unable to take any blunt force damage let alone an attack from his wyvern talons if it came to that. Not that he wished to have to use them. 

If it came to it though Malik had begun to mentally prepare himself to use everything he had at his disposal to survive. He could also use this as a chance to show off why the academy and the kingdom might allow him more free reign of dungeons. 

If he was stronger overall and more well recognized for that strength, then he would have better access to dungeons to continue growing. So that he could get stronger faster. In turn, that would allow him to be able to fight the cultists. He would be able to go hunting. 

By the time night had come and gone, Malik found himself standing at the front entrance to Brilliance Academy yet again. This time, there were five armored guards. Their steel armor was glinting in the first rays of the morning. 

'These are somewhat powerful humans with the guard class. They are most likely the younger recruits of the city guard. This would be a mission to develop their own understandings.'

With the guide picking this up using the angelic eyes, Malik felt a little put off. He wanted to have a solid guard to lean back on. Not some young guard who was not prepared to fight to the same level. 

Yet, the more he analyzed the guards, the more he realized that they had pretty high defenses. They had been trained to be guards for a reason. They needed to be able to defend the people under any circumstances. Therefore, they had been put through physical training to resist more things than what other people could normally resist. Hence why they were above young students when it came to strength. 

Malik glanced at the system again. He was frustrated that he was locked at level ten from now. He knew that he was going to be stuck there and the experience points would just stack up. Waiting for him to properly grow. However, he also knew that he was still growing stronger. 

His training had increased his stats to some degree. But more importantly than that, he had grown in terms of skills. He was able to understand elemental manas much better than before. He was also more than just experienced in his dagger and staff arts. Something that someone graduating should be at. Only the geniuses would be above advanced in their weapon techniques. 

"Attention to me please." Professor Mapper made it known that he was expecting from them the attention for safety that this needed. Beyond that, he ensured that everyone would not be allowed to split up. 

The rules were simple, but it also brought up the decision that the ones who defeated a monster here would split the rewards of that battle equally. The boss would also be taken on by the guards, they would be doing so as a demonstration to the student a show a team would work safely within the dungeon. 

This was a wise choice since it kept the students safer. It also ensured that he boss would be beaten and keep the dungeon from getting too populated. 

"Remember, the dungeon is not a safe walk in the park. Some may take the appearance of a field of flowers, but then have an underground monster that will eat you in one bite. This is not that place, but remember to be vigilant and rely on others for assistance." 

The last words were said with a lot of force behind them. Everyone present felt that they had to accept this or else they would suffer. Every professor was powerful in some form or fashion. But professor Mapper was surprisingly intimidating when it came to safety. A habit he had due to his job of mapping dungeons for so many years. 

Following the lead of the guards and their professor, the group was surprised that they were staying within the city limits. Naturally, Malik knew this already. He had looked up the information the most out of all of them. 

He knew that this dungeon was located within a small cemetery. It had been the first built when the city was nothing more than a village. Due to this, it was one of the places a natural dungeon formed. It was also a protected historical sight with graves of founding members. It had a lot of significance. 

"Now, last words before we enter."