Having received their mission from Captain Yami, Brian's group set out immediately for the Dungeon that had just appeared right on the border between the Clover Kingdom and the Diamond Kingdom. His group was no different from the original story, with the two people accompanying him on this mission being Noelle and Luck.
Brian and Noelle were rookies, so by all rights this mission should have been Luck's to command, but Captain Yami had handed command of the mission to Brian before they departed.
Luck had exceptional combat ability, and his capacity to sense mana was also at a supreme level. But the problem he had was being far too battle-hungry, which led him to neglect everything else, or worse, to forget his mission entirely. It was because of this that Captain Yami had put Brian in the commanding role.
A calm and rational person like Brian was a far more fitting choice than either Luck or Noelle.
"Are we early or late getting here?"
At this moment, what lay before Brian, Noelle, and Luck was a sight so magnificent it stole the breath away. A massive rocky mountain that had once been perfectly ordinary had split wide open, revealing a deep passageway leading down into the earth.
Ancient stone architecture covered in strange patterns crept along the rock face, giving off an eerie light from beyond the entrance as though beckoning those outside to step in.
The Dungeon was right in front of them, and the moment they arrived, Brian put the question to the other two in his group. Their travel speed had been very fast, with the whole group riding their brooms at high speed without stopping for the entire journey, taking several hours to move from the Black Bull base to this point.
"Let's just go straight in."
Luck drew in a deep breath, his pupils dilating with excitement. "I can't sense any mana from inside the Dungeon from out here. But my instincts are telling me someone got here before us."
Just as Luck said, understanding the situation inside clearly from the outside was impossible. Neither Brian nor Noelle had any objection to Luck's idea of heading straight in.
The three of them moved into the entrance, a corridor of complete and utter darkness, with the only thing visible ahead of them being a small source of light at the far end of the passage.
Both Brian and Luck were capable of sensing mana and the terrain of the Dungeon the moment they set foot inside the entrance. Noelle could neither see nor sense anything, so she let Brian take her hand and lead her along.
It did not take long before their group of three arrived at their destination, right in front of a solid wall blocking whatever lay beyond it, letting only a sliver of light filter through from the other side.
"Ah... let me see... this must be it."
Luck stepped forward, his hand feeling along the stone wall in front of him. He found a button, pressed it lightly, and immediately the stone wall before him collapsed, revealing the interior of the Dungeon to the whole group.
An ancient current of mana, dense and chaotic, poured out like a tidal wave, making all three of them feel the immense natural mana filling the wondrous space before them. What greeted them was not a damp cave but a colossal labyrinth that defied every law of physics.
Stone stairways floated suspended in midair, waterfalls flowed upward from the ground toward the ceiling, and blocky stone structures rotated slowly in a manner that was deeply unsettling. Light poured from magic crystals in a shimmering display, creating a space that was at once magnificent and riddled with danger.
"This is amazing..."
Feeling the mana flooding all around her, Noelle murmured unconsciously as she took in the interior of the Dungeon. This was her first time entering a Dungeon, and the experience gave her a feeling that was truly unlike anything she had felt before.
"The natural mana in this place is incredible. It feels like my body is being nourished by it."
"You're not wrong about that..."
Brian said slowly. He was feeling the same things Noelle was feeling, though he could sense considerably more than she could. "A mage's body absorbs natural mana from the air to replenish their mana after using magic. The abundance of natural mana here will allow mages to recover their mana much faster than they would outside this place."
As he spoke, Brian sent his mana downward into the ground beneath his feet. From the moment he had entered the Dungeon, he had been using [Seismic Sense] without pause to read the terrain and understand the situation inside.
Apart from Brian, Luck was also constantly using his innate mana-sensing ability to gather information about everything unfolding within the Dungeon.
"So what do we do now?"
Noelle looked around her. She could see a great many staircases and pathways inside the Dungeon. "There are so many routes..."
"Take it slow. A Dungeon has an incredibly complex structure, and if you're not careful you can get lost at any moment. And that's not even counting the magic traps hidden all over the place in every corner."
Brian answered Noelle while he himself was gradually building a clearer picture of the Dungeon's layout. A small map had begun to form in his mind, and within a short span of time he had already pieced together everything about this Dungeon.
"I'm sensing other people inside this place along with us."
Brian immediately informed Luck and Noelle of what he had just discovered through [Seismic Sense]. "Given the numbers, I don't think they're people from the Clover Kingdom."
At a considerable distance from where Brian's group was standing, a group of mages was moving together through the Dungeon. There were approximately seventeen of them, and based on the mana Brian could sense, only one person out of all seventeen was someone Brian's group needed to pay serious attention to.
"Hm, your sensing ability is even better than mine."
Luck remarked, glancing over at Brian with a small flash of surprise on his face. He had also detected the other presences in the Dungeon, but at a slower rate than Brian.
"No, it's just that the terrain here lets me sense things more easily."
"You don't have to be modest about it."
Luck kept the characteristic wide grin on his face. "This Dungeon is enormous. Being able to sense everything happening inside a place like this is genuinely something worth acknowledging."
"Then thank you for the compliment."
Brian gave a modest nod as Luck praised his mana-sensing ability. He then shifted to a more serious tone to ask Luck's opinion.
"So what are you thinking? The Diamond Kingdom's group has someone extremely powerful with them. That person is not someone easy to deal with."
Brian had detected the movements of everyone inside the Dungeon, but that did not mean he could fully sense the mana of each one of them.
If someone was carefully and deliberately concealing their mana, there was no way he could detect that person's mana reserves through something as simple as using [Seismic Sense] from a great distance.
Among those who had come to this Dungeon from the Diamond Kingdom, one person had concealed their mana. The distance between Brian and this person was too great for him to sense their mana, and he already knew who that person was.
"Sounds absolutely wonderful..."
Luck showed no sign of caution at the information Brian had just shared. On the contrary, the grin on his face only grew wider. Sparks of blue lightning began dancing around his ears as his eyes swept the darkness of the surrounding corridors.
"You and Noelle can find your way to the treasure without me, can't you?"
"It's true that without you we could still get there, but..."
"Then that's all I need to hear."
Luck cut Brian off the moment he heard what he wanted to hear. "I'll leave you two to handle the treasure business."
Luck's Grimoire flipped swiftly to a spell recorded within its pages, and in an instant he had equipped himself with a pair of boots forged from lightning. He shot forward the moment the boots were on his feet, and before he was gone he left Brian and Noelle with one parting remark.
"I've got something to take care of. See you later."
Luck's figure shrank into the distance and disappeared, leaving Brian and Noelle behind in the middle of the Dungeon. The two of them were fairly impressed by the speed Luck had just demonstrated, but Noelle at this moment felt like something was not right.
"Hey, wait. He's not running away from his responsibilities, is he?"
"Who knows."
Brian answered Noelle with a tone of reluctant resignation. "Well, it's fine. Either way we can catch up with him right after. Let him go have a little fun first."
Despite having known in advance that Luck would wander off to do his own thing, Brian made no move to stop the battle-hungry young man.
Luck could draw the attention of the Diamond Kingdom's mages, while Brian and Noelle would find a way to reach the location of the treasure as quickly as possible. This was also a workable enough plan that suited Luck's nature.
"Alright, now we can..."
Right as Brian was about to speak and rally Noelle into action, a powerful surge of mana suddenly swept in toward the spot where the two of them were standing. A familiar feeling, a gentle breeze brushing past Brian's hair, made him stop in his tracks for a beat.
"W-What's wrong?"
Noelle noticed Brian had suddenly gone quiet and turned to look at him. It was rare for Brian to show any reaction like this, so she couldn't help but be curious.
"Someone from another squad just arrived."
Brian answered Noelle in a cheerful tone. "Someone I know well. And someone you know too."
Noelle was about to open her mouth and ask more, but a voice rang out before she could get a word in.
"Well, well, look who we have here. What a surprise, isn't it, Brian?"