A month-long search had finally turned fruitful. The dungeon of the fiend buried underground was finally unearthed by the hero's hands. Flora had covered the entrance with bushes, fallen trees and thick thorny vines, but that very pile was the reason the party's attention was drawn to it. Where everyone saw a mess of nature, they saw the perfect place to hide the entrance of a dungeon. And upon tearing through the shrubs and bushes, the hero and his party now stood before the rocky entrance and the message to adventurers that was written on it.
"Defeat the Fiend, and you shall be the savior of this world," Rudy read, his heart pumping from a mix of excitement and anxiety.
The others were just as stunned and excited, but caution was the word. None of them had any intentions to go inside just yet; after all, there were plenty of preparations to be made. Especially since right underneath the stone-carved message was another message that read.
"The master of the dungeon rests underground on floor nine hundred and ninety-nine." Clicking her tongue, Charlotte couldn't believe just how much of the place they would have to clear before even having a shot at seeing the archfiend or the stronger of the monsters that he must command. "We should cover this place before leaving. I don't want some unsuspecting person to take refuge from the rain inside this place."
"Yeah, I don't think we're prepared to go in anyway, so that sounds like the best idea for now," Roxanne added, not wanting to relive their last mistake.
"Yeah, man, even with our new equipment, I doubt we can handle this," Audrey affirmed further.
Shrugging his shoulders, Rudy began covering the place with the same pile of shrubs and bushes that they'd moved out of the way.
"I don't plan on dying either, so let's get back and report to the guild." Turning his head momentarily, he nodded at the girls. "They should put up warning fliers around town for people to stay away from this place."
"I'll make a note of the location on our map," taking out a detailed map of the forest handed to them by the guild itself, Roxanne pencilled a dot on their location. "I hope that was right. This thing costs an arm and a leg, and I wouldn't want to ruin it with wrong markings."
"Alright, help me here," Rudy motioned the rest to give him a hand.
Piling the mess back onto the entrance, the party spent quite a bit of time obscuring the place. Even then, unlike what it had been like naturally, their construction seemed hasty and drew more attention, if anything, as it stood oddly out of place. Leaving the spot with what little they could do, they decided to head back into town and come up with a plan on how they would explore the dungeon.
Unlike the goblin one, this fabled nest was bound to be filled with monsters that they'd never heard of. Even the so-called experts in monsters would need to visit the dungeon themselves to study the newfound species.
"I doubt the first few floors would be that bad, to be honest," unable to get her mind off the dungeon, Charlotte started a conversation. "Still, I'm not saying that we should throw caution to the wind, but if this place has so many floors, then surely not all of them house high-level and unique monsters."
"Who knows how long that place had been closed off for? Maybe it does have unique stuff on every floor?" Audrey, for once, was leaning more towards caution than her aunt. "But there also could be treasures left behind by other adventures from long ago…"
The look of caution in her eyes, however, did not last long. The thought of treasure to a rogue was akin to a mousetrap.
"It could also be cursed!" Roxanne reminded, instantly dousing Audrey's excitement.
"Oh…yeah, that's true."
Remaining silent during the conversation between the girls, Rudy was thinking about something else entirely. They'd finally found the dungeon, and while on his way back into town, his mind kept asking him one thing.
'Should I propose to her, after all? Who knows if one of us will actually end up dying when we start exploring?' Now that they'd found the dungeon, and possibility of their deaths loomed hauntingly above his head. After being captured by the goblins and almost being neutered, he felt as if every moment could be his last when out adventuring. But what if it wasn't him who perished, but one of the girls in his party? That thought kept him staring at the ground as his mind discarded everything else, even the chatter around him.
'Mom has also started working in that merchant's shop this morning, maybe I should go and check on how things are going there?' Hoping that seeing her would help him contain his train of thought, Rudy wanted to talk to Freya. Not only so that she could comfort him, but also because he wanted her to know that he was about to confess to Roxanne. 'Maybe she can give me some pointers on how to do it?'
Not entirely sure how to actually confess, he wanted her opinion on how she would've loved for someone to have confessed to her. Had Audrey and Charlotte ever been in a relationship, perhaps he would've asked them instead. However, since they hadn't, Freya was his only choice to discuss the matter and perhaps get somewhere.
'I can also talk to Custer and Cecilia about the dungeon while I'm there, maybe they can help us again with something?' Seeing how there were plenty of places for them to visit, Rudy lifted his head and, with a subtle smile, looked back at the girls.
Standing right at the edge of town at this point, he made a brief stop to hand out tasks.
"You guys can go ahead and inform the guild about what we found. I will go and see if those monster experts have anything that could help us progress. Information, items, or whatever."
His speaking out of nowhere caught everyone a little off guard, but since what he'd said made perfect sense, they decided to go along and parted ways then and there. The girls would go on and inform the guild, all the while, Rudy would visit his mother and get some information about the monsters that might be encountered in the dungeon.
However, there was one thing that he failed to consider–something he couldn't have considered, for even Freya didn't know that the shop had a dress code for women–one that only applied to her as she was the mascot that would draw the customers in.